Prototype: Half as Long, Twice as Bright
by SpiteSprite
Summary: Takes place after the 2nd of both games, using good Cole after surviving the RFI blast. There's a third outbreak of the virus in NYZ and Cole and Zeke think it may be related to the plague Cole had assumed he'd eradicated. Meanwhile Heller returns to NYZ to put a stop to the virus once and for all. Please Please R&R! :D
1. Chapter 1

Zeke sat in the living room in his newly acquired apartment in New Marais, he shifted forward into his sofa before falling back into it armed with his newspaper, he lifted his feet atop his coffee table and gave a yawn whilst he lethargically flicked through the pages.

His attention was stolen before he could even read the front page when the TV began to crackle and the image began to faze in and out between static, "Morning brother," he said without even turning to face Cole.

Cole fell into the sofa opposite and held his head in his hands.

"You look like shit, how you feeling today?"

"Heh, thanks Zeke" Cole smiled "I'm getting there," as if to contradict himself his hands flared up with static causing him to strain under the pressure to control his power, he quickly composed himself and gave an unsure smile as if to ease Zeke.

"You er, you want some coffee?" Zeke simply asked.

Cole nodded and watched as Zeke exited the room. It had been six months since his triumphant battle with the beast and the effects of the RFI were still taking a toll on Cole. Initially Cole had fallen into a coma, Zeke had never left his side. He awoke a month later and displayed no conduit abilities at first. But it wasn't long before his power had begun to emerge once more, albeit in fits and starts, uncontrollable and erratic. Cole quickly dismissed the memories of the battle, after all he may have saved humanity from the plague but unknowingly killing thousands of conduits in the process. Cole sought to distract himself with the news he eyed the TV which was flashing disturbing images of a news story.

"Here ya go" Zeke passed a steaming mug of coffee in Cole's direction "what's going on there?"

Cole received the mug and took a sip "dunno, turn it up."

Zeke increased the volume and took a seat, the two sat engrossed in the shocking images.

The images portrayed the military shooting at what looked like things that resembled humans.

"What the hell? Is that the plague?" Zeke asked.

"No, can't be?" Cole replied "where is this?"

"New York"

… _people are fearing this may be the beginning of a third outbreak which became known as the Mercer virus, the sources of the third outbreak are currently under investigation and the city remains in quarantine. The current death toll stands at 32 and Gentek are working around the clock to develop a cure for this new strain …_

"The hell is the Mercer virus?" Zeke slurped his coffee loudly "we need to get over there!"

"What?"

"You're like a super hero, Cole" Zeke replied "you know more about the plague than anyone, you beat it once…"

"This isn't the plague, Zeke!" Cole grimaced "And even if I did go my powers are unstable… and I have no way of getting over there."

"We'll drive"

"Heh, sure" Cole replied "how's the 'Dunbar car' coming along? Are you forgetting that cars and me don't really get along?"

"Forget about the Dunbar car, I've got something else, wait here!"

"Oh boy," Cole placed the coffee mug down and continued to watch the news whilst he waited for Zeke to reappear.

He didn't know what to make of it, if it was the plague it would mean that the RFI was for nothing, or at the very least a temporary fix.

"I haven't got a name for it yet" Zeke announced as he held up a thick all in one rubber suit.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Cole shook his head "what, wait is that a onsie? I'm not wearing that."

"Don't be like that! Just try it on, you'll see"

Cole glared at Zeke, took a long drawn out sigh and reluctantly received the suit. Zeke waited patiently for Cole to re-emerge, he did so hesitantly fully aware that he looked ridiculous.

"You didn't really take me breathing into account." Cole folded his arms.

"Stop your whining," Zeke replied "Now do your thing,"

Cole shrugged and began to charge himself up. He could feel the electricity surging through and around his body, causing his muscles to contract but try as he might none of it managed to escape the suit.

"Well it works at least, we should get packed we got a long journey ahead of us" Zeke said.

Meanwhile, in New York City, James Heller was approaching the quarantine gates that were heavily guarded by the military, there was no sign of Blackwatch but they were sure to show their faces soon. His phone vibrated noisily in his pocket and he pulled it out to answer it.

"We need a plan, James!" Dana yelled.

"No, we have to act now!" Heller replied "I know for a fact this can't be Mercer this time, I need to know who's behind this and put an end to it for good!"

"This isn't your fight, not this time" Dana replied "And you have Maya to think about."

"I am thinking about Maya, I'm the only one who can stop this and if I don't-"

"James, I'm not going to be able to talk you out of this" she sighed "How are you planning to get in?"

"The front door!"

"Try and be subtle okay?" Dana asked "You've been off the grid for a long time and they've finally begun to think you're dead, use that to your advantage."

Heller grumbled.

"I'm coming in too." Dana announced.

"No way, you gotta look after Maya!"

"And I will, I've found a secure and unused base in the dead zone, we can use that as our HQ." Dana replied "I'm not taking no as an answer, I can be just as stubborn as you. Besides you'll need intel, I can't get you that from outside, Maya can help that kid's a natural hacker."

"Stay away, Dana, promise me." Heller ended the call and proceeded towards the gates.

He waited for his opportunity, the large Gentek van passed between him and the guards and he seized his moment to become one of them. He kept his head down and entered with a patrol waiting until he was far enough inside to desert them, unnoticed.

The scenes inside were familiar yet like something he had never seen before. The quarantine zone had all the evidence of the infected having been there yet there was no one around. The streets were eerily quiet, a stark contrast from what he remembered of the last outbreak. He was heading towards Penn Station, the sites of the previous couple of outbreaks. It was his only lead.

Heller arrived to be greeted with the site of an almost demolished building. No one was around and it had looked to be undisturbed for quite a while. He entered cautiously, aware that it could all come crashing down at any moment. After progressing through a badly damaged corridor and bumping into no signs of life, he was beginning to think that his journey had been in vain, however, it was at that moment that a shadow at a close distance caught his eye. As if aware, it had been intercepted the shadow quickly retreated. Heller armed himself with his blade arm and marched forward. As he got closer the shadow moved again and again, getting faster. Heller charged and smashed into a wall with his fists in an attempt to capture the shadow but he was too slow, the ceiling above cracked and threw down debris.

"Come on out you asshole!" he yelled.

He quickly turned to meet his potential nemesis but froze on the spot and quickly retracted his powers. Stood before him was a young boy, he simply eyed Heller with a blank expression. Heller slowly approached, he instinctively used his sonar pulse to see what he could learn about the child, but it didn't show him anything untoward.

"I'm not gonna hurt you" Heller said gently.

The boy held his hand out as if to welcome Heller but remained silent. Heller took the boys hand with the intention of guiding him out into safety but at the moment the two made contact, Heller was pushed backwards and he felt his limbs expanding. Heller let out a large scream as he felt his insides shifting beyond his control. He writhed around as he tried desperately to keep himself together. The boy remained stood before him, simply gazing upon him.

"What the fuck!" Heller panted "What the hell have you done to me?!"

Heller fell onto his back, whilst his body expanded into tendrils. His chest began to split into two and was ripped open from the inside. He screamed in agony, unable to contain his power. After several exhausted pants and large growth began to expand from his chest, it took on an humanoid form and battle its way from the release of their joint flesh. The form began to alter and perfect itself into something more recognisable, someone more recognisable. Heller, restrained on the ground by his own flesh, lifted his head to see Alex Mercer break away from him and land at the other side of the room, he was powerless to do anything.

Alex took several sharp breaths, visibly startled he checked his hands and raised his head in surprise to see Heller and a young boy whom he'd never been acquainted with glaring over at him.

The three were interrupted by an overhead helicopter beaming lights into the building through the cracked and broken ceiling.

"We have you surrounded!" the helicopter announced.

Alex seized their moment of distraction to pounce past the pair and make his way towards the exit. The boy simply overlooked Heller who lay delirious before him, he shielded his eyes away from the helicopter and quickly retracted into the shadows out of harm's way, leaving Heller at the mercy of the military that were already within the building.


	2. Chapter 2

The expansion of the RFI pulse spread like wild fire, passing through every being it came into contact with. The humans were safe, the victims of the plague healed but the conduits had not been so lucky, Cole could almost hear their screams.

"Wake up," Zeke gave Cole an abrupt shove.

Cole opened his eyes to welcome the morning rays of sunshine, grateful to be ejected from the recurring nightmare that haunted him. "We here?" he asked as he gave a stretch.

"Almost," Zeke parked up "we're gonna have to walk the rest of the way."

"Be good to stretch my legs, get outta this thing"

The two exited the van and Cole, after struggling several times to remove the outer suit, tore it open and stepped out from it. He straightened his t-shirt and took a much needed breath of fresh air.

"Man, you've broken it!" Zeke said.

Cole shrugged as he threw it into the back of the van, for now that was the least of his worries. He turned to take in the sights of the outskirts of New York, life appeared to be continuing as normal out here.

"How we gonna get through the quarantine?" Cole asked, as the two continued in the direction of the gates.

"We'll think of something" Zeke replied.

Since fleeing from Heller, the boy and the Military, Alex hadn't stopped running, not once. He took in the sights of the destroyed city, in a much worse condition than he had ever witnessed, which said something. He finally came to an abrupt skidding halt atop a large skyscraper when he eyed a quarantine gate below. What an earth was going on, he thought. He remembered being consumed by Heller, he felt each of his cells become scattered, separated and lost within Heller and that was the last thing he could remember. He didn't know who the boy was, the one who had released him, but somehow the kid had managed to reconstruct Mercer's cells as easily as if they were jigsaw pieces and he had been set free. Mercer had no idea what was going on or how long he had been dead for or who the kid was and as he poked around within his own, and the stolen memories of others, there was nothing that would tell him anything new, there were no traces of Heller within in.

Unsure of his next actions, it was as if the answers lay below at the quarantine gate.

"Okay, dya think you could distract them with a little lightning?" Zeke muttered as he and Cole overlooked the heavily guarded barrier from outside.

"I dunno Zeke, my power – I can't control it yet" Cole rubbed his brow in irritation.

"You can do it, focus at that cloud over there."

"Then what?"

"Then we run!" Zeke laughed.

"Well, that's quite a plan" Cole shook his head before eyeing the dense cloud beyond the gate "here goes."

Cole squinted and strained, he focused all of his attention upward. The sky seemed noncompliant at first but after a few moments Cole managed to convince the clouds to grumble. Cole threw his arms upwards and pulled multiple lightning forks from the sky that struck several areas of the base. As planned, the military scrambled leaving the opening vulnerable to intrusion.

"You did it!" Zeke laughed "let's go!"

Cole appeared as startled as Zeke was, it had been months since he had possessed control over his own power. The two dashed through the gates, Cole as a precaution threw lightning grenades about the place to create a clear path for the two and they ran.

Atop the roof above, Mercer watched with a curious intrigue.

"Is that a new type of infected?" he grinned "with power like that I'd be unstoppable!"

Alex Mercer was about to make his move he would leap down and scoop Cole from the ground and consume him before he realised anything was happening, unfortunately for Alex a supreme hunter joined the battle below.

Zeke fired several rounds from his pistol as he yelled over for Cole. The two were surrounded by the infected, Cole was preoccupied as the towering creature leapt on top of him and pinned him to the pavement. Cole let loose a blast of electricity which bolted the monster away and he stood just in time to see Zeke being carried off by another. Cole leapt into action, he spotted a nearby electrical outlet and drew out its power before giving chase.

The commotion had drawn the unwanted attention of several helicopters that began a pursuit. They fired rockets and bullets haphazardly but Cole managed to out manoeuvre them. However they had managed to slow him down so much so that he'd lost any visual trace of Zeke.

Cole continued regardless desperately sprinting before taking to the buildings and grinding his way along electrical wires. It was no good, Zeke was gone and the helicopters were growing in numbers. Cole halted at the edge of a tall skyscraper as a helicopter obscured his escape route.

"We have an unidentified assailant in the yellow zone, Red Crown, please advise."

Cole could hear the radio signals between helicopters, he didn't know who these people were but he knew they were a threat and right now they stood in the way of Zeke's rescue. Cole summoned lightning from the clouds once more and blasted the helicopter easily throwing it off balance. The pilot screamed as he lost control and the helicopter began to tumble from the sky. The other helicopters quickly intercepted and threw everything they had at Cole.

The building buckled below him and Cole became engulfed in a cloud of crumbling concrete. The helicopters momentarily halted their attack to assess the situation. When the dust cloud cleared, Cole stood at the foundation of the demolished building encased in a shield of electricity.

"Target it still standing, send a strike team!"

Before the helicopters were given the chance to send an SOS signal, Cole rose into the air dragging up large chunks of concrete with him. When Cole reached the level of the helicopters he let loose an almighty electrical impulse which sent the helicopters jolting from the air, destroying them in an instance.

Following the assault, Cole drifted to floor level, panting and exhausted. He wiped his brow and took a brief moment to recover, he didn't have time to rest he needed to find Zeke. He readied himself to leave when Alex Mercer leapt from a building above which such force in knocked Cole from his feet.

"That was quite a light show," Alex held a relaxed pose, displaying a smirk below his hood.

Cole didn't speak, he got to his feet and his firsts flared up with static as if to threaten him. Alex countered with a transformation, his arms became long blades and he widened his stance "So what are you exactly? A new strain of the virus?" he asked.

"Get outta my way," Cole growled, his expression fierce.

Alex simply lifted his head and gave Cole a cold stare before releasing several tendrils from his back that weaved into the air. Cole ignited his fists once again, but Mercer was fast. The tendrils made contact with Cole and he began to yell out as he began to feel as if his insides were being sucked out.


	3. Chapter 3

Zeke fired the final shot from his pistol and through sheer luck he struck the supreme hunter right between its eyes, forcing it to relent and release him. Zeke scrambled to his feet, the monster had taken him quite a way away deep into the dead zone. Luckily, there were no others in the area. Zeke pulled his phone from his pocket to find that it was badly smashed up and beyond broken.

"Damn," he sighed and looked about.

The area looked like Armageddon and wreaked like death, he was beginning to regret coming here. He paced cautiously holding his empty pistol in front of him, as more of a threat than anything else. After around twenty minutes of his idle travels he found a building, it looked to be in fairly good condition compared to the other neighbouring buildings. There was no sense in staying in the streets were it wasn't safe. He decided to enter and hope there would be a way to re-establish communication with Cole. He was about to enter when he heard what sounded to be a tank rolling in and he took cover behind a burnt out car, discarded on the road. The tank came to a halt and Zeke watched as to his surprise a women and a little girl climbed from inside. They gave the area a once over before dashing off into the same building Zeke had chosen for his refuge. Zeke decided he would follow discreetly.

Meanwhile, in a secure hospital based underground in NYZ, Heller awoke to find himself strapped to a table with unwelcoming bright white lights staining his vision. He coughed and spluttered as his consciousness sunk in. A doctor stood over him wearing a mask.

"Where?" Heller spluttering prevented him from finishing the sentence.

"Ah, James Heller, you're awake" the doctor announced "don't try to move, you're already weak from the bloodtox circulating around the room."

"Bloodtox?" Heller strained.

"It's keeping you sedated until we decide what we're doing with you," the doctor replied "you are wanted on suspicion of releasing another strain of the blacklight virus, however if you cooperate and tell us what you know…"

"Releasing?" Heller struggled to cling to consciousness "What are you talking about? I came here to put an end to it."

"Well it's funny that you happen to show up right after it's outbreak, tell me, are you working with Mercer?"

"Mercer?" Heller remembered Mercer being pulled from within his being by a boy, he remembered the look of surprise as the two made eye contact and he remembered his smug smirk before escaping the scene and his blood began to boil, but the thought exhausted him and he faded into unconsciousness before the doctor could ask him anymore.

Back at the dead zone, Zeke navigated the dark corridors of the building, quietly following the pair whom sprinted ahead. He had no idea who they were but they weren't militia and they certainly didn't look like any of the infected freaks from the earlier encounter. The women stopped and glanced behind and for a moment Zeke thought his cover might be blown, he ducked behind an upturned vending machine and waited. Dana punched in a number to the keypad and the two entered into the room ahead. Zeke leapt out and pursued them only to reach the number pad. Luckily the stranger had left clues. There was fresh blood on four of the numbers and after several failed attempts he managed to open the door. He cautiously strolled inside and it seemed he was alone. The door swung closed behind him and he heard the sound of a cocked pistol before slowly turning with his hands up.

"Who are you?" Dana demanded. Maya stood beside her, her eyes filled with fear.

Zeke dropped his pistol from his hand "I'm not gonna hurt you." He said.

"Damn right!" Dana announced "get over there, move."

Zeke walked on forward hoping he could talk himself out of this predicament, "I'm not with the militia, or those… things."

"Who are you with? Why are you here?" Dana shook the pistol as she spoke.

"Me and my buddy… well it's a long story but we heard about the events here in NYZ and we come along to lend a hand."

"Oh really?" Dana replied "And where's your 'buddy' now?"

"I have no idea, if you could just get that gun outta my face."

Maya stood before Dana with her arms outstretched "I don't think he's a bad guy" she said.

"Damn straight!" Zeke replied.

Dana hesitated before slowly lowering her weapon, "tell me why you're here."

"Me and my buddy Cole McGrath wanted to see if we could help, well he's a conduit, and like I said we saw the events and er-"

"A conduit, huh?" Dana asked "a human with super powers, you mean?"

"You know about conduits? Well yeah," Zeke replied.

"I know about a lot of things. So why are you here? Are you a conduit too?"

"Nah, I'm er… well I'm more the brains of the outfit you see." Zeke replied as he adopted a confident posture "yep, I mean well Cole is powerful and all but I'm behind the scenes making it all possible. I mean if it weren't for me-"

Dana gave a brief smirk before returning to a serious expression.

"Dana, come quick!" yelled Maya from across the room.

The two approached several monitors displaying scenes from CCTV placed around the city. Zeke took a seat and set about adjusting the cameras after spotting his friend on screen.

"Do you know what you're doing?"

"Technology, camera hacking, it's sorta my thing. That's him," Zeke said "that's Cole."

"I didn't have you down as a master hacker or anything." Dana moved in closer to the screen to better view the situation.

"Who's that guy with him?" Zeke asked.

"Alex?!" Dana shuddered.

"What the- Is he a conduit too?"

"No," Dana replied "he's something much worse." The two continued to watch Mercer and McGrath battle it out.

At the scene of the battle, Cole had fallen to his knees under the pressure of Mercer's power but he was far from giving up, he erupted and outpoured with electricity which coursed down Mercer's tendrils. Mercer screamed out desperately and attempted to retract his tendrils, becoming encased in his defensive armour but the electricity wouldn't release him. Cole continued until he was completely discharged and Mercer fell to the ground, as did Cole.

Mercer quickly rejuvenated his scorched flesh and glared at Cole with clenched teeth and his piercing eyes, "this is far from over!" he announced before taking off into the skies.

Cole breathed a sigh of relief whilst he continued to rest on the road, he was lucky Mercer didn't have a counter attack. Cole watched as small residual sparks ignited from his fingertips but he could feel himself running on empty and it made his head spin.

"We gotta help him!" Zeke got to his feet.

"There's nothing we can do from here, he's over the other side of the city" Dana replied.


	4. Chapter 4

Zeke continued to monitor the screens to see that Cole was simply sat resting on the pavement, he didn't look like he was moving anytime soon.

"I'm taking that tank!" Zeke said

"No, no, no, no!" Dana replied "that's our only way to get around!"

"Yeah and I need to get around."

Maya reached into her pocket and pulled out her cellphone "here," she passed it to Zeke "this way we can keep in contact."

"Thank ya!" Zeke smiled "that's a huge help!"

"Could you not just call your friend from here?" Dana asked, arms folded, completely opposed to the Zeke's plan.

"I'd love to but er.." he removed his broken phone and waved it in front of her "it's not like I've remembered his number."

"We can't just leave his friend out there, with all those infected" Maya said.

"Fine," Dana shook her head, and approached a map pinned to the wall, she traced her eyes across the screen looking for the cameras corresponding serial number and located it on the map "you're friends currently here," she pointed "the quickest route is through here," she pulled her fingertip across the map "but there's no telling where the infected will show up, I can monitor you on the cameras and guide you through but the rest is up to you."

"Don't worry about me, I'll be back before you know it."

"I'm not worried about you, I'm worried about the tank."

"Ouch!" Zeke replied before turning to leave.

Once inside, the phone began to ring and he answered.

"Have you ever driven a tank before?" Dana asked.

"I once drove a thermonuclear missile on a big-assed truck, same difference!" Zeke replied "It's a little cramped in here."

Dana shook her head as she watched his lack of progress from the monitors in the CCTV room.

"Where's my dad?" Maya asked "I don't see him on any of these screens."

Dana quickly assessed the screens to discover she was right "I'm sure he's fine, I'll call him."

Dana ended the call with Zeke and dialled Heller, "hmmm he's not answering," She tried again "I'm sure he's fine, Maya, probably struggling to get a signal."

"Look," Maya pointed to the screen displaying Cole but he wasn't alone.

Cole got to his feet whilst as the approach of a small boy drew near.

"Hey kid, are you lost?" Cole asked.

The child gaze remained fixed and unreadable. Cole sent out an electric pulse, it had helped him in the past to see victims of the plague and he figured it could help him to establish victims of the virus. The pulse was intercepted before it reached the boy, without him even lifting a finger and it was sent back to Cole in the form of an excruciating sharp pain to the head.

"I … " the boy cleared his throat, his voice was croaky "I can see an anomaly."

Cole remained still, unsure if this boy was friend or foe, conduit or virus. Cole had no idea how he managed to reflect the neuro-pulse away from himself. The boy slowly began to raise his index finger and his eyes seemed momentarily more animated as if they were looking through Cole. Cole raised his hands, ready to focus his polarity wall but he was aware that he was drained of electricity.

"There's an anomaly in your genetic structure," the boy said.

"You can see?" Cole lowered his defensive stance "I'm a conduit."

"Conduit?" the boy repeated thoughtfully "your genetic structure is flawed. You are not the one I'm looking for."

"Huh?" Cole smirked at the comment before his reply "just who are you?"

"They call me Pariah." The boy replied "I'm looking for DX-118."

"DX- what?"

Meanwhile within the base, after several attempts of trying Heller's number Dana gave up and noticing the meeting between Cole and the small boy she called Zeke.

"How's it going?" she asked.

Zeke fired some missiles from the tank, caught on the cameras "Oops you startled me," he said "I was wondering what that button did."

"You better get a move on, Zeke" she replied "you're friend isn't alone."

"I'm going as fast as I can," Zeke replied "did you say he wasn't alone?"

"There's a kid with him," she replied.

Cole circled the boy slowly unsure of what would happen next.

"You are of no use to me," the boy sighed, his appearance betrayed the mature way in which he expressed himself "no matter."

The boy raised his hand and managed to lift Cole from his feet. Cole quickly retaliated with every bit of energy lying in his reserves it was just enough to shield him from the foreign energy surrounding him and threatening to drain away his power. It felt akin to the RFI blast, in which he felt his conduit abilities being sucked away from him. The two were momentarily disturbed as a helicopter swept down from above.

It wasn't the only one, a whole strike team deployed lingering above. Cole grinned thankfully and leapt into the air. He pulled the electrical energy from one of the copters lapping up the static and feeling the relief of the healing it offered him. He immediately set about launching an attack on the boy but when he hit the ground, the boy was already escaping the scene. The majority of the helicopters pursued him leaving a couple with Cole.

"We have the target, codename: Demon, in our sights, red crown please advise."

"Demon?" Cole shook his head "you gotta be kidding me!" Cole didn't hesitate in launching an electric rocket the copters way. Whilst distracted, he hadn't noticed several tanks creeping up behind him.

Dana watched on screen as Zeke had blended in with a fleet of tanks, a strike team, on their way to deal with Cole, he was just hoping he could eject himself from the tank in time to let Cole know he wasn't part of the militia.

"Your friend is making quick work of that strike team!" Dana announced.

"That's Cole for ya, he doesn't mess around" Zeke replied.

"Don't get too close to him, he'll destroy the -" before Dana could finish her sentence. Cole leapt on top of the tank and the energy was drained from it immediately.

Zeke quickly lifted the lid and popped his head out to see his friend looming over him with an electrically charged fist.

"Zeke?!" Cole relaxed his power.

"Thought you needed a hand" he replied.

"Let's get out of here!" Cole ducked an oncoming rocket that sailed in the air only inches above.

"You killed the tank!" Zeke replied "Dana's gonna kill me!"

"Urgh, we'll have to go on foot!" Cole announced as he pulled Zeke from the tank by his arm "think you can keep up?"

"None of that parkour crap!" Zeke leapt from the tank "let's get out of here!"

The two ran

"Zeke, you idiot!" came a loud wailing from his cellphone.

"Can't talk now!" Zeke ended the call and continued his sprint alongside Cole.

"Dana?" Cole panted.

"I'll explain when we get there."


	5. Chapter 5

"Wake up! Wake up!" following the command a slap to the face.

Heller raised his head and squinted his sights to compensate for the blurring.

"We are running out of time!" a scientist said, he wasn't addressing Heller, there was a member of blackwatch stood beside him, "we need to reduce the level of bloodtox in the room, he's no good to us like this!"

"Absolutely not," replied the blackwatch troop "orders are orders."

"With pariah and Mercer running around it's only a matter of time, Heller might be the only one who can stop them!" the scientist said.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that," the blackwatch troop shook Heller attempting to bring him back to his senses before turning to face the scientist again "that is classified intel. You're not paid to know about that. You do your job and we'll do ours."

"He's deteriorating fast, at this rate we'll lose him," the scientist sighed.

"What a shame," the blackwatch troop scoffed "not my problem, I want him ready for interrogation within the next couple of hours!" and with that he left.

Cole and Zeke arrived at the base and their welcome was not warm, Dana glared at Zeke from behind her computer monitor. Zeke gave a sheepish grin, fiddled with his glasses and cleared his throat.

"So Cole is it?" Dana asked to dismiss the tense atmosphere.

Cole nodded and gestured toward her "Dana?"

She nodded.

"So er… where's the little lady?" Zeke was referring to Maya.

"She found some beds in a room across the corridor, she's taking a nap … she's worried about her father."

"Father?" Zeke asked.

"Yeah, he's here in NYZ but we're yet to establish any contact with him," Dana replied.

"Is he gonna be safe out there with all those things crawling about?" Cole asked.

"Heller is… he's a strain of the virus, but he's a good guy, he can handle himself." Dana replied

"When you say strain…?" Cole began.

"The guy you were fighting before….Alex Mercer, he's a strain of the same virus" Dana began "But Heller isn't like him, he's a good man, he came here to stop the spread of the virus and find out who was behind the outbreak. This doesn't make any sense, Alex is running around from nowhere … Heller's missing. I'm really worried." Dana rubbed her temples whilst she paced the room.

Cole and Zeke exchanged concerned glances.

"How about you take a break?" Zeke offered "I'll watch the monitors for a bit, you look like you could use the sleep."

"Oh thanks!" Dana

"No I didn't mean!" Zeke immediately sought to retract his statement "what I meant is, you've had a long day and well…"

Cole grinned and gestured a digging motion as if to emphasize the hole Zeke was digging for himself.

"I know what you meant," she sighed "thank you, I might just do that." And with that Dana took off and headed out the room.

"You like her don't you?" Cole teased.

"You have got to help me get her number!" Zeke replied.

"I think she has bigger concerns right now!" Cole said as he began to pace away.

"Where you headed?"

"I'm gonna take a look around the place," Cole replied "it's not a good idea I get too close to those monitors anyway, I'll see you in a bit."

"See ya." Zeke gave a lazy wave.

The building was huge and Cole set about climbing to the top floor, just for some alone time to clear his head and reflect on the situation. He felt subtly different somehow and this feeling had come about after meeting the little boy who referred to himself as Pariah, when he was surrounded within that odd force field. He couldn't put his finger on what had changed, his powers seemed intact and he was more in control of them than he had been for months but something was definitely different.

Cole sat alone for a good forty minutes on a balcony he'd found a long way up the building when his solace was disturbed by Dana entering from behind him.

"I er.. I couldn't sleep," she announced as she took a seat beside him "I hope I'm not disturbing you."

Cole shook his head.

"So, your power back there was really something" she said "I've never met a conduit before."

"I'm betting you probably have," Cole glanced downward as he remembered about the RFI "although, there's not too many of us around anymore."

Dana sensed his unease and paused before she spoke "well, I'm glad you're on our side. I mean Zeke says you came to help out."

"Oh yeah," Cole replied "And what else did Zeke tell you?"

Dana smirked and looked off into the distance before returning her gaze "oh just that he was the brains of your little operation."

"heh, did he now?" Cole couldn't help let off a smile and a subtle shake of his head, but he decided he would put a good word in for his friend "well I think I'd have given up by now if it wasn't for Zeke."

"Oh?"

"Zeke is my best friend," Cole replied "we've been through a lot together," Cole paused "there was a time when we didn't see eye to eye," Cole was of course referring to the ray sphere incident but he didn't dwell on it, "I trust Zeke with my life."

Dana got to her feet, "that's good to hear," she smiled "well I'm feeling sleepy now, it was nice talking to you, good night."

"Night."

Maya awoke within the dorm, within the bed she had found herself earlier. She crept out of bed and poked her head into the monitoring room to see Zeke at the CCTV monitors with his back turned to her. Dana didn't appear to be around, the girl was about to enter and greet Zeke when she spotted someone at the end of the corridor. The figure stood at her height and was obscured in shadow but didn't appear to move. At first she was frightened but as the figure turned slowly and began to walk in the opposite direction she became curious. She looked back toward Zeke but decided against disturbing him and instead she decided to follow the stranger. She quickened her pace and followed the boy around the corridor and through several rooms and doors.

"Stop," she called out "I wanna talk to you."

The boy exited the building through a back door that lead into an isolated alleyway and then he turned to face the girl. She hesitantly approached him before stopping a few feet away, her heart thumped in her chest. The boy gazed at the girl but said nothing, he didn't appear alarmed, Maya thought he almost looked sad.

"Are you lost?" she asked.

The boy slowly titled his head but didn't provide an answer.

"Are you looking for someone?" she persisted "I'm looking for my dad."

"Yes, I'm looking for DX-118" the boy spoke softly.

"What's that?" she asked as she took a few tentative steps forward she halted when the boys gaze began to widen and a brief and unpleasant sensation enveloped her.

"Your DNA," he began "I like its formulation."

The girl laughed nervously and subconsciously began to back away.

Dana returned to the dorm to find that Maya's bed was empty "Maya!" she cried out.

Zeke had heard her calling and came to see what the commotion was about.

"She's gone! Have you seen her?" Dana panted.

"No I er" Zeke said "maybe she's exploring the building."

"I told her not to leave this room!" Dana took an abrupt exit and sprinted down the corridor yelling her name.

Zeke followed closely behind checking the rooms as he went. The two had caught the attention of Cole who was descending the stairs.

"Maya's missing!" Dana cried out.

Cole closed his eyes and let loose a pulse in order to trace her movements, after several attempts he managed to find a trace "this way!"

Cole led them down the corridor and out through the door and into the alleyway outside, they could see Maya not too far in the distance and then Cole spotted Pariah. He flared up his fists and marched ahead encased in electricity. Cole let out a wave of electricity as a warning, mindful not to hit Maya. The girl, startled, leapt to the ground with her hands over her head and screamed.

Pariah had spotted them too and decided to flee; he leapt vertically into the air and disappeared. Leaving Zeke and Cole scouting the skies for him.

Dana pulled Maya up and placed her hands on the girls shoulders, "I told you not to leave!" she screamed.

Maya was visibly shaking with her eyes transfixed on Cole. Cole immediately extinguished his powers and backed away to relieve her fears.

"Get inside," Dana took Maya's hand and took her inside.

"What the hell was that thing?!" Zeke gasped.

"I have no idea." Cole replied.


	6. Chapter 6

The pilot slowly brought the helicopter into a descent. He was bringing in, who he assumed to be, a very important guest to apparently interrogate Heller. He'd learned the guests name was Dr Grey. It wasn't someone he'd heard of but much of the initial researchers had been killed at the hands of the virus. The pilot had been restricted knowledge on Heller's whereabouts but through eavesdropping the conversation taking place in the back of the helicopter, he'd managed to establish he was close but underground.

The two passengers climbed out from the helicopter once it had landed, followed by the pilot. The pilot approached the two and stood at the side-lines of their conversation before receiving uninviting expressions. But before they could tell the pilot that there conversation was private, the pilot unleashed tendrils from his back and quickly swallowed up one of the doctors. The pilot allowed himself to momentarily morph into his more familiar form, that of Alex Mercer and he gave a cruel sneer before consuming Dr Grey and stealing his form. Alex quickly absorbed the memories that belonged to Dr Grey to discover that whitelight was back in production. A formula developed to combat and eradicate the virus, armed with this information Mercer felt determined to put a stop to it but first he would consume Heller to learn of the events that had taken place in his absence. After the uncomfortable sensation of having foreign memories merge with his own, Alex opened his eyes to see a large securely armoured vehicle pull up in front of him.

"Dr Grey?" Came the voice of the driver who ushered him towards the car.

Alex complied and approached.

"We were expecting two of you?" the driver said.

Alex paused whilst he thought of an appropriate answer that wouldn't blow his cover, he quickly combed through the newly acquired memories before speaking, he cleared his throat and began to mimic the voice of the man he had consumed "It's a little embarrassing. But, he forgot the sample of whitelight that he was supposed to bring with him" he replied "he was adamant it would be needed so the pilot is taking him back to the base to retrieve it."

The Driver raised his eyebrow but seemed satisfied with the answer and Alex climbed into the back.

Maya returned to the monitoring room, she looked exhausted and fell down into a chair beside Zeke "I've just got her to sleep," she was of course referring to Maya "I can't believe she just ran off like that!"

"Yeah," Zeke replied "but no harm done, right?"

Cole nodded in agreement.

"I just hope we find Heller soon" Dana sighed "I'm really getting worried."

"If he was anything like the thing I was fighting," Cole replied "I'm sure he'll be alright."

Dana shrugged and bowed her head.

"Hey, look there." Cole stood in his seat and pointed to one of the monitors, it flickered gently in retaliation to his approach so he lowered his finger.

On screen, the three were witnessing a small fleet closing in on a building. Unbeknownst to them, Mercer was amongst them.

Alex approached the underground base, about to enter into the lift when he was stopped by security on the door. They directed him to a hand scanning device that looked slightly different from others he was accustomed to bypassing on borrowed fingerprints.

"Now when you put your hand in, you'll feel a small pin prick on your index finger… these new scanners can detect the virus in the blood." One of the guards stated.

"Always told you, ya shoulda been a scientist and not a soldier!" his collegue, the other guard on the door, mocked.

"That's very clever," Mercer scowled, his disguise wouldn't help him here but he was under pressure to offer his hand for a scan.

He took his time to approach the device, to buy some valuable seconds to think of some way to bypass the scan but his hesitation was already making him look suspicious. Mercer sighed and entered his hand and as expected a large siren resounded around the base and swarms of militia and black watch troops descended on him from out of nowhere. Mercer dropped his disguise and became himself once more.

"Zoom in!" Zeke called.

"That's him!" Cole and Dana spoke in unison as they recognised Alex Mercer whilst they watched from the monitors.

"What's he up to?" Zeke asked.

"I don't know but that must be where blackwatch are holding up," Dana replied "Maybe Heller is there."

"We gotta go!" Zeke replied.

"That's not far from here" Dana said.

"We can't just jump to conclusions," Cole folded his arms "we need a plan."

Mercer made quick work of the guards, unleashing his whipfist and flailing it in large scoops before taking down the door with his fists. He entered into the building and ran through the corridor, impervious to the bullets that were hitting him from every direction. Heller had to be in here somewhere. The security was getting tighter and it was hampering Mercer's progression. All of a sudden, the hallways filled with a thick red smog. Mercer immediately recognised its vile stench as bloodtox, he'd acquired some immunity to it in the past but this was a large quantity and it had stopped him in his tracks. He began choking as he felt the toxin tearing him apart from the inside out and he had no option but to retreat.

Within the HQ, the three were still watching the monitors.

"Zeke will you stay with Maya?" Dana asked.

"No way! I'm coming with you!" he replied.

"No, Cole's coming – he's a conduit he'll be able to get us inside."

Zeke momentarily displayed a hurt expression.

"How about you both stay?" Cole suggested.

"I know more about Alex than anyone, I want to be there."

"What do you know?" Zeke asked flippantly.

"Well, seeing as he's my brother…" Dana flashed Zeke a dirty look before retrieving a pistol from the table and leaving the room.

Cole stood still for a moment as if waiting for Zeke's permission to leave.

"Go after her, man" he said "I'll keep an eye on you two from here."

Cole could sense that Zeke felt pushed out but he had no choice but to go after Dana.

Alex fled the base, closely pursued by the bloodtox that was now pouring out onto the streets. Alex sliced through the barrier of blackwatch troops and when he was free of the bloodtox he swiftly left the scene.

Zeke watched as Dana sprinted ahead of Cole, nearing the base. Luckily for them Mercer had fled without realising the two had arrived, unfortunately the remaining troops had quickly turned their attention onto Cole. This allowed Dana to slip into the facility whilst they concentrated on Cole. Cole noticed her slip away but was powerless to stop her as he was bombarded by the onslaught of their attacks.

Several moments passed by whilst Cole continued to distract the troops, all the time hoping that Dana was alright. Cole threw grenades, rockets and lightning arcs and gradually reduced the numbers of troops to near nothing, but he was certain back up was about to arrive. He welcomed the site of Dana and the dazed man she was escorting out the building. He was leant over Dana, reliant on her to move him, it must have been Heller. Cole fired several more bolts to clear a path that allowed him to get near the two and as he reached them with a smile of relief.

"We gotta get out of here now!" Dana called.

Cole quickly supported the man to relieve some of the strain he was having on Dana. His phone rang and he answered.

"You guys alright?" asked Zeke from the other end of the phone.

Cole turned to face the nearest camera, aware that Zeke would be watching "we'll be back soon," he said "can you see anything on camera?"

"Nope no strike teams, militia, you're good to go… wait…" Zeke paused as he watched one of the monitors portraying an image being sent from a camera directly outside their HQ.

Alex Mercer stood alone on a road, he wasn't facing the base and didn't appear to be doing anything. He'd simply landed and looked to be taking some time to gather himself.

"What do you see, Zeke?" Cole asked.

"It's err nothing, you're good to go… See ya soon!" Zeke ended the call.

Zeke paused for a moment, uncertain he'd made the right decision not telling them about Alex Mercer's presence outside the base but he'd done so because he wanted a chance to take him down. If Zeke could kill Mercer, he felt that he'd redeem himself, Dana thought that because he wasn't a conduit he was useless and he was about to prove her wrong. Zeke armed himself with a pistol, before leaving he quickly checked on Maya who was sound asleep and then he took a deep breath and proceeded to leave.

Once outside Zeke discreetly crept from car to car in order to approach Mercer, he was only several feet away and Mercer had his back turned. Zeke left the shelter behind a car and walked up behind him. He pulled his gun up and took aim at Mercer's head before resting his finger on the trigger.

Mercer spun around and held his arms out widely as if to portray a mock surrender "what, are you going to shoot me?"

Zeke froze on the spot as he gazed into Mercer's cold eyes.

Mercer lowered his hands and slowly walked toward Zeke, "you're working with my sister, aren't you?" he casually asked.

Zeke steadied his aim and kept it fixed within the direction of Mercer's forehead.

"Look at you playing the hero. You know," he began "I'm not the bad guy here. I'm just trying to figure out what happened, same as you."

"Stay back," Zeke warned.

"I've heard blackwatch talking," Alex disregarded his threat but decided to halt his approach "you're with electric man, am I right? I think they were calling him a conduit. The conduit gene, now that is a fascinating subject, I'm sure… not that I've read extensively on the topic…"

Zeke remained silent.

"You're not a conduit though, are you?" Alex said "No, I'm not sensing that from you. But that doesn't mean you can't achieve great power."

"What are you getting at?" the words slipped Zeke's mouth before he could prevent himself from displaying his curiosity.

"I've learned to hone the virus, alright" Alex replied "what I'm saying is, you have the potential to evolve and I have the potential to make it happen. After all…" Alex flexed his arm and transformed it into a large biomass-made blade "not all the side effects of the virus are bad."

With that Alex turned to leave "you get me Heller and I'll make you more powerful than your wildest dreams." Alex abruptly leapt into the air and was gone within several seconds.

Zeke dropped the pistol and took several sighs of relief. That was not how he was expecting their meeting to go. He thought about the offer, he remembered back to a time when he desired power – he'd envied Cole for a long time and had even acted on his harboured grudge which he had very much regretted ever since. Zeke dismissed it, instead deciding to retreat into the base before Cole, Dana and Heller returned.


	7. Chapter 7

"Lay him down there," Dana instructed.

Cole strained as he lowered him onto a settee within the monitoring room. After releasing him he stretched his arms and rotated his head until his neck clicked, he looked over towards Zeke who had come over to see them.

"You alright?" Cole asked.

"Yep, just been watching the fort" Zeke replied before quickly changing the subject "this is Heller?"

Dana nodded.

Cole touched Zeke's arm as if to reassure him that he'd been helpful and then he left the room. Dana turned to Zeke and looked as if she had something to say.

"You were great out there," Zeke muttered.

"Zeke, I just want to say that I'm sorry," she began "what I said, it wasn't fair."

Zeke bowed his head and looked as if he was willing to accept her apology.

"Heh, I wasn't supposed to tell you," Dana smiled "but Cole told me earlier that he couldn't have made it this far without you… and well I just wanted to say the same thing and I wanted to thank you."

A smile crept up Zeke's face.

"Don't let it go to your head!" Dana grinned "Right, I'm really going to bed this time… You should really think about going to sleep too."

"Don't worry about me. I'm gonna keep watch on the cameras," Zeke replied.

Dana nodded and left the room. Cole entered sometime later to see that Zeke had fallen asleep draped over the desk at the base of the monitors and he gave a smirk. He walked over to where Heller was lying and he was showing no signs that he was waking up anytime soon. Cole yawned he was tired too. He sat on a chair and allowed his eyes to close.

Several hours later, Heller sprung up from his slumber without warning he panted loudly to see the two strangers, Cole and Zeke, fast asleep on their chairs. In his panicked state he rushed over to Cole and gripped him by the shoulder. Cole accidently released some static in his startled state but relaxed once he realised it was Heller.

"Urgh," Cole yawned "welcome back to the land of the living."

"Where the hell am I?" Heller yelled "Who the fuck are you?"

Cole was momentarily taken back by the aggressive tone adopted by Heller, "charming" he said.

Dana must have been woken by all the commotion as she came bolting through the door to greet Heller.

"James!" she called.

"Where's Maya?" he growled.

"Shhhh" she placed her finger over her mouth "she's in the next room, she's sound asleep, come on."

Dana led Heller from the room and left Cole to fall back into his nap. Before he closed his eyes he glared at Zeke, who hadn't been disturbed and was snoring loudly and drooling onto the desk. Cole paid him no more notice and allowed his eyes to close.

Dana escorted Heller to his daughter, he beamed a smile of relief and stroked her head, careful not to wake her.

"You promised to stay away" Heller muttered to Dana.

"Well aren't you glad I didn't!" Dana replied "I was worried sick about you… and so was Maya."

Heller took a deep sigh "I'm sorry,"

"What happened, James?"

"I'm not sure exactly," he replied "but Mercer's on the loose. There was this kid and he somehow pulled Mercer out of me, it hurt like hell."

"Oh god," Dana said as she came to realise who she thought the boy may be "Pariah."

James had heard the name, but his knowledge about him was limited, even after absorbing Mercer. Pariah was a closely guarded secret, so much so that the stolen memories Mercer had acquired had made little sense to Heller when he had received them. He attempted to search himself to see if the memories remained, but they didn't, every trace of Mercer had been ripped out of him by the boy.

"Pariah must be looking for Alex" Dana said.

"And what will happen if he finds him."

Dana shrugged "I don't want to find out."

Dana sat on the edge of her bed and the two remained in a state of contemplation for a little while. Dana had gradually retreated into her bed and was sound asleep in no time. Heller took the bed beside his daughter, he gripped her hand before releasing it then he allowed his eyes to close. His body still needed to repair from its dose of bloodtox.

It was the early hours of the morning and Alex was keeping himself entertained with a swarm of infected that he had come across in his travels. He stomped on the head of the last remaining supreme hunter and gave a dissatisfied sigh. Consuming infected was often pointless, when the virus took hold it often destroyed the hosts DNA leaving no identifiable traces of their memories. Already, he had circled the edges of the city several times by now and not managed to find a single source of escape. Alex took himself to a rooftop where he sat and swung his legs from the edge. The scenery wasn't exactly picturesque but the silence allowed him to think. When he was consumed by Heller, he thought it was all over, he never thought he'd be given his own thoughts, feelings and consciousness ever again. He'd accepted that every part of him would become a part of Heller and he had welcomed the release from it all in his final moments. As a human, Alex Mercer had done an unforgivable thing, but the identity of the virus and the identity of Alex Mercer had become so intertwined that the virus felt responsible. The virus had sought to redeem itself by removing the nuke from NYZ, it was willing to sacrifice itself and had accepted the release then also but it had survived. Alex let out a long sigh and got to his feet. All this thinking was making him angry, nothing bashing in a few infected skulls wouldn't fix. The man bent his feet and readied ascension into the air when he was stopped in his tracks by a muttering voice addressing him from behind.

"Are you DX-118?" it asked.

Alex swiftly turned to face the young boy whom he had never met but somehow knew the identity of. He adopted a brief expression of fear, an expression that didn't suit his face. This was Pariah, he thought, what did it want?

Alex glared at the boy from beneath his hood and the two appeared in a standoff for a moment. Alex flexed his arms and allowed his fingers to adopt a claw like formation. The boy appeared unfazed by the threat only simply widening his gaze and burrowing it into him.

"You're incomplete," the boy stated.

"What do you want?" Alex called.

The boy looked disappointed but relaxed his face into the usual blank state he usually adopted, "when you passed the virus onto others you inadvertently gave away a small part of yourself."

Alex simply scowled but listened to what the boy had to say.

"I thought that when I separated your beings, you would be enough. But you're incomplete," the boy reiterated.

Alex guessed that he was referring to the separating of himself and Heller, "then why separate us?" Alex sneered.

The boy didn't answer, rather he gave Mercer a quizzical stare as if the answer should have been obvious to him. Alex was the original variant of this strain, he was the source, he was what the boy needed. Pariah knew this, it puzzled him as to why Mercer himself couldn't grasp such an obvious logical concept.

"You need to become whole again," Pariah muttered.

"Why?" Alex asked "Why should I?"

"Because I want to cleanse the world," the boy answered.

Alex retracted his claws. Pariah wasn't a threat to him for now at least. For now, Mercer wanted to consume Heller and therefore for now they both wanted the same thing. With everything Mercer knew about Pariah, he knew that the two meeting was Blackwatch's biggest fear and it gave him the sense that if he cooperated then they would both benefit.

Alex smirked from beneath his hood "Call me Alex," he said.

"Al-ex," the boy repeated back.


	8. Chapter 8

Heller barged into the monitoring room with no regard for the peace; Cole and Zeke were rudely ejected from their sleep by the sounds of him rummaging around the desk.

"What time is it?" Zeke yawned.

"Urgh," was Cole's response as he stretched and reluctantly stood.

"Weren't you supposed to be keeping an eye out?" Heller huffed.

Zeke disregarded Heller's comment whilst his attention become transfixed on the screen "Woah, we're did they all come from?" he said.

Dana entered and immediately attended the monitors "that's a lot of infected."

Several of the screens displayed locations within NYZ, had become heavily populated with droves of infected, they'd seemed to appear overnight.

"Where are they coming from?" Cole asked.

"It doesn't make any sense" Dana said more or less to herself "during the first outbreak, Elizabeth Greene created the infected, then Mercer at the second outbreak… how are there so many of them?"

"Can't the infected, infect others?" Zeke asked.

"Not at this rate, there's far too many of them," she replied "and that doesn't answer: how did this outbreak start?"

Zeke shrugged "What's the plan for today?"

Dana sighed and rested her head on her palms, "we've got to stop Mercer, before he and Pariah meet."

Heller nodded "what do you want me to do?"

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" Dana replied.

"We can't just sit around and think," Heller snorted "for every minute he's out there…"

"I know, James, I know."

Cole and Zeke had backed away from the conversation, it was all becoming very stressful whilst they plotted their next move. Zeke didn't speak; he appeared to be deep in thought. Cole waved his hand in front of his face to gain his attention.

"Uh, sorry" Zeke couldn't help but to keep replaying Mercer's offer again and again in his head of course he hadn't told anyone about the meeting and he hated himself for allowing the temptation to cause him to keep considering the offer.

"You okay?" Cole asked.

"Yeah, yeah," Zeke smiled "Maya still sleeping?" he addressed the room.

Cole eyed Zeke with a brief suspicion before turning to the others.

"I think so," Dana replied.

"How about you worry about the cameras and I'll worry about my daughter, hmmm?" Heller scowled.

Zeke frowned.

"James!" Dana sighed "getting angry with everyone won't achieve anything!"

"I er… sorry" Zeke replied "I'll go and make some coffee."

Zeke left the room and Cole held Heller in a hostile glare before following Zeke. The two found a kitchen and Cole began to rummage around the cupboards in search for food.

Zeke had found a vending machine, it offered coffee but after digging through his pockets he found that he had no coins to insert "ah man!" he exclaimed.

"here," Cole approached and laid his hands on the machine.

"Don't you dare break it!" Zeke warned as Cole shot through a mild bolt of electricity.

A cup dropped and started to fill with thick gloop, its smell resembled coffee at least.

"It worked," Cole grinned "I found some food here. We'll take it back."

"Sure thing" Zeke replied as he waited for each individual coffee to pour and Cole left with the first lot of supplies.

Zeke gave a discouraged sigh and he couldn't help but be reminded of Mercer's offer once more, to become an evolved. Cole was a conduit, Heller was the virus and together they would be unstoppable, he thought. Dana had all the ideas covered, hacking, and surveillance. Zeke couldn't help but feel that he was in the way. Then it came to him, they were all looking for Mercer anyway. If he could use Heller as bait Mercer would grant him power and Heller could take care of Mercer- he'd be fine. As an evolved, Zeke could help them combat Mercer and Pariah.

"Zeke, you coming?" Cole stood in the door way carrying a couple of piled up boxes of food.

Zeke gathered the coffees and left with Cole.

Zeke handed the coffee around the room and took a seat next to Dana near the monitors.

Several hours had passed and there had been no sightings of Mercer. Cole and Zeke had entertained themselves by reminiscing the good old days, leaving Heller and Dana to formulate a plan.

"You know," Zeke said "I've just thought of something."

"What is it?" Dana allowed herself a moment of distraction, the constant viewing of the screens was beginning to hurt her eyes.

"Ya remember back in New Marias, how you and Nix, and Quo combined your powers…"

The others understood he was implying that Heller and Cole should attempt to try it.

"I'm not a conduit" Heller remarked.

"Well I think it's worth a shot," Cole replied.

"Okay," Dana said "what do you need to do?"

"There's no infected outside the base," Zeke checked the monitors to see there weren't any that were too close "you could practice out there?" Zeke suggested.

"You up for that?" Cole addressed Heller.

"It's worth a shot."

The two took off whilst Dana and Zeke waited for them to appear on the monitor.

"What can you do?" Cole asked.

Heller quickly demonstrated a range of his destructive transformations.

"That won't work" Cole sighed as he allowed sparks to pass from palm to palm, "I'll only end up electrocuting you."

"There is one thing," Heller said "but we'll need to find us some targets."

Cole rang Dana back at the base to let her know of the plan.

"There's some infected a couple of blocks from you, don't go too far." She replied before placing the phone back down.

It didn't take Cole and Heller long to locate the infected that Dana had been referring to. They were low level walkers and posed very little threat to the two. Heller marched ahead and grabbed one of the infected to demonstrate his biobomb. Cole watched as Heller flung the infected backwards and long tendrils outpoured from its body and ripped it apart from the inside.

"Now that is brutal!" Cole folded his arms, he was impressed "I think I can work with that, grab another."

Heller did so and he quickly implanted the biobomb but this time Cole tossed a carefully aimed electric grenade into the open wound of the infected and Heller threw him back among the crowd of other infected.

This time the tendrils that expelled from the infected cast bolts of lightning and electrocuted the others around it.

"Did ya see that?" Zeke asked, excited by the combined attack of Cole and Heller.

Dana simply smiled she was very impressed, she laughed as she seen Cole and Heller high five and seemingly celebrate their new found skill. The two appeared as they were making their way back so Dana got to her feet "it's getting late isn't it," she said.

"Three o'clock," Zeke replied.

"Maya's still in bed, I'm going to go and wake her up" Dana said.

Heller and Cole came back into the base and entered the monitor room, they were still fuelled up from the excitement of their display of powers.

"That was awesome!" Zeke grinned.

There temporary victory was short lived, when Dana returned into the room alone and looked directly towards Heller, she looked slightly worried "It's Maya," She said.

Heller immediately dropped the smile and marched after Dana to see his daughter.


	9. Chapter 9

Alex and Pariah were traversing the chaotic NYZ, simply walking around, Alex led the way keeping Pariah in tow. The small boy had simply followed him and after speeding ahead Alex hadn't managed to lose him.

"I didn't realise I'd be babysitting," Alex frowned "do you really need to be following me around?" he turned to face the boy.

The boy simply returned his gaze but said nothing.

"I mean don't you think we'll have the edge if they all think we haven't met yet?" Alex folded his arms and sighed "we're in plain sight out here,"

"Where should I go?" Pariah asked "What should I do?"

Alex shrugged, he wasn't a fan of children at the best of times and he knew that Pariah was no child but he resembled one in appearance and loosely in demeanour.

"How should I know?" Alex replied "what do you normally do for fun?"

"Fun?" Pariah cocked his head "I don't have fun. Normally, I'm waiting."

This kid made Mercer feel unnerved and once Alex had Heller, he didn't want to spend another moment around him. For now he'd play along, he'd consume Heller, become whole again, he hadn't liked Pariah telling him that he was incomplete, it was as if he felt inferior in some way. He even thought that if the opportunity presents itself he'd consume the conduit, and maybe even Pariah. Gentek, Blackwatch and the militia had all seemed terrified at the prospect of Mercer and Pariah becoming acquainted but this notion only served to excite Mercer, if he consumed Pariah could he become something new, something more?

The boy looked to the sky and he curled up his lip into something that almost resembled a smile. He held his hands out to beckon the infected crow towards him that was circling ahead. Mercer watched closely. The crow, instantly tamed by the boy, swooped down gently and squatted in his hands. The boy looked towards Mercer, he held no expression but it was as if he wanted Mercer to say something about this creature, Pariah had never seen a crow before. After several seconds the crow pecked at the kids sleeve before taking off and launching above them were it continued to circle them. Pariah continued to watch the crow fondly.

Unexpectedly and from out of nowhere a bullet struck the crow and passed through its head, it brought the birds flight to an immediate standstill and it fell from the air and landed in front of the boy. Alex immediately scanned the closest buildings with his eyes to find the sniper responsible, but instead he spotted several helicopters coming in from different directions.

"Let's just get out of here," Alex sighed "Blackwatch are really beginning to bore me!"

The boy ignored him, he leant down and scooped the twitching corpse of the crow in both hands.

"Screw this!" Alex called as he was about to take off.

Tanks were now closing in and the copters above had the pair in their sights. Still the boy stood there as if he was oblivious to the strike team. Pariah eventually lifted his head to look at Mercer. As ever his expression was blank, but Mercer noticed a small tear rolling down the boy's cheek.

Mercer simply returned a stare of curiosity before noticing on oncoming missile heading towards him and he leapt from harm. The boy remained on the spot. Mercer sprinted from building to building in attempt to evade the troops and when he was confident he had succeeded he remained concealed behind a wall in such a position that allowed him to observe Pariah.

After an onslaught of rockets and bullets, the strike team ceased their fire and waited for the dust and debris to clear. When it did, Pariah simply stood in the centre, the roads around him were cracked and destroyed under the pressure of the assault. Pariah didn't have a scratch on him. The boy simply gazed back into his hands at the dead crow and within seconds a bright white light was emitted from his hands, at first it remained concentrated in his palms. Mercer edged out from the wall as the curiosity got the better of him but he quickly retreated and shielded his eyes away as the light increased in volume and become unbearable to look at. Alex crouched beside the wall, disorientated as his sights were stolen momentarily but in that time he heard their screams, he heard the explosions of the tanks and collisions of the helicopters.

It was several minutes later until Mercer dared to open his eyes and everything had returned to normal. He poked his head from the shelter behind the wall to see that Pariah hadn't moved. However there was nothing left of the strike team. Alex began a slow stroll back towards the boy whilst he assessed the surroundings, he had no idea what the boy had done but was shocked to see that it had been so intense that the shadows of the soldiers had become scarred, engrained into the pavement they had been standing on and the walls they had been next to. Other than that, there were no traces of them. Alex watched as Pariah threw his arms into the air and released the crow into flight; the crow appeared alive and well.

"What the hell did you just do?" Alex panted.

The boy said nothing he turned and began to walk away. Alex thought about following him but decided against it and left in the opposite direction.

Back at HQ, Dana and Heller remained at Maya's bedside.

"I'll be okay, daddy" she smiled whilst she shivered.

Heller rested his hand on her head to see that she was burning up. Dana flashed Heller a sympathetic glance before standing and leaving the two of them alone. She entered into the monitoring room to find Zeke and Cole lazily throwing a tennis ball between each other. Upon noticing Dana, Zeke stood allowing the ball the fly past him and bounce into the back of the room.

"How' Maya holding up?" Zeke asked.

"She has a temperature and she's vomiting," Dana replied as she pulled her palm over her face "this is all my fault, I shouldn't have brought her here. What if she's infected?"

"It's too early to tell, right?" Zeke assured her "she'll be alright."

Zeke's reassurance didn't work, Dana took a seat with her back facing them. The three didn't talk until Heller entered the room. He angrily punched the wall as he entered leaving a fist shaped dent behind.

"I told you," Heller was shaking with emotion when he spoke "I told you to stay away!"

Dana simply looked to the floor.

"My Amaya might be infected because of you!" Heller didn't wait for a response he simply took off down the corridor.

Dana covered her eyes with her hands, Zeke moved in to offer her a hug "don't blame yourself, Dana" he said "we'll fix this, right Cole."

"Right," Cole nodded.

"Is there a cure to this thing?" Zeke asked.

"There was," Dana replied as she logged onto a nearby computer "it was called whitelight. At the time it was released Alex tainted it so it couldn't be used as a cure."

"Is there any left?" Zeke asked "that is untainted, I mean?"

Dana didn't answer, she appeared to be concentrating on her screen.

"What you got there?" Zeke approached.

"I found some files earlier, they're dated at around the time the whitelight was announced and I was hoping to learn more about it" she replied "but the files are encrypted, it's gonna take me forever to decipher them."

"Here, let me help ya," Zeke offered.

"I'm gonna go after Heller," Cole announced "make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"Sure thing, brother." Zeke called "be in touch, I'll keep an eye out for you on the screens."

"Thanks, Zeke" he replied "later."


	10. Chapter 10

Heller hadn't gotten too far, Cole found him sitting on the step at the entrance of the HQ. He took a seat beside him.

"I'm sorry" Heller rubbed his eyes "I just… I can't lose Maya again."

"James," Cole began "I may be able to see if Maya's infected. I was able to see victims of the plague in the past."

Heller had no idea of the extent of Cole's abilities. Heller's pulse was different in nature and had never shown him victims of the virus, however maybe he could use his pulse to learn the location of Mercer "I want you to show me," Heller agreed.

"Are you sure?" Cole asked.

Heller nodded and the two stood. They went straight to Maya who had fallen back asleep. Cole looked toward Heller as if to silently ask for permission, he simply nodded. Cole gave several sharp blinks whilst he switched his sights in order to attune himself into her neuro-electric aura. It wasn't the same as when he saw the plague, but after several attempts he was able to see something unusual. A very small something lodging at the base of her brain, he had never seen anything like it.

"What do you see?" Heller asked.

"I'm not sure," let me try something. Cole raised his hands above the girl and allowed static to flow between his fingertips to allow himself to generate just enough of a charge so as not to cause her any harm. He attempted his pulse heal.

Maya briefly jolted upwards before falling back onto the bed, she hadn't woken. Cole tried again, but to no avail. He could see the growth remained untouched.

"What the hell are you doing?" Heller pushed Cole away.

"I was trying to heal her," Cole grumbled unhappy with his lack of gratitude "it's not working, I can't."

"Is she infected, or not?" Heller yelled.

Cole nodded "yeah," he paused reluctantly "I think so."

Heller's eyes weld up but he managed to retract his tears quickly "get out," he said "I want some time alone with my daughter."

Cole nodded sympathetically and left the room.

Zeke peered from behind the monitor "You okay?" he asked Cole.

He nodded "we need a cure for Maya, have you two found anything?"

"Nothing," Dana sighed.

"Blackwatch have got to know something right?" Zeke asked "If we could listen in to their communications…"

"And how we going to do that?" Dana asked.

"Simple we just need a radio tuned to the right frequency" he said "there's gotta be something lying around somewhere."

"If I can get the attention of a strike team, we could steal one" Cole said.

"It's too risky," Dana replied.

"Hmmm," Cole looked up towards the CCTV "What about that?"

Zeke approached the screens.

"I mean that helicopter has been sitting there for days, it's not far from the base where they had Heller," Cole announced.

"It looks undamaged, I reckon we could salvage a radio from there," Zeke said.

"Well spotted, Cole," Dana said.

"Hey, it was my idea."

"Good job, Zeke." Dana humoured him.

"Come on, let's go." Zeke said.

Cole nodded, "keep an eye out" he called to Dana as they left.

The two walked the infected streets and the nature of the infection had dramatically increased. Whole buildings were blanketed in pulsing growths and stretches of flesh hung from rooftops. The two hadn't spoken much on the way but now the helicopter was in sight. Unbeknownst to Cole and Zeke, this was actually the helicopter that Mercer had piloted Dr Grey in; it had been untouched ever since.

"It just looks abandoned" Cole announced "I can't see any damage."

"Wait here," Zeke instructed "I'll go inside, see what I can find."

The inside of the copter was perfectly preserved. Zeke noticed a small bag on the backseat, there wasn't time to check its contents but he placed it over his shoulder to check out later. Zeke popped his head out from the driver's seat to yell over to Cole.

"There's a radio in here," he said "Ya know something? I think I can get this thing working."

"Have you ever piloted a helicopter before, Zeke?" Cole folded his arms.

"You remember that time I drove that thermonuclear missile on a big-assed truck?" Zeke asked, he often referred to this story as a means to demonstrate his heroics.

Cole rolled his eyes "Fine, I hope you know what you're doing!"

"Here," Zeke threw a rope for Cole to catch, it was firmly attached to the outside of the helicopter "tie that round yourself and you can come along for the ride."

Cole created a slipknot at the end of the rope in which he allowed enough of an opening to place he right foot inside, he grabbed the rope and waited for Zeke. The rotors began to spin but there was a bit of a delay before the helicopter began to elevate. Cole readied himself, clinging onto the rope as it lifted him a small distance below the helicopter. Zeke's piloting skills were not the best; Cole was repeatedly subject to the prospect of hitting buildings that were too close.

"Damn it, Zeke!" Cole shouted up, he used a gentle push of electricity to prevent himself colliding into a wall and was swung outwards trying not to hit another oncoming wall "move away from the buildings!"

In the helicopter cockpit, Zeke was blissfully unaware of his friends turmoil below, he was enjoying the ride. The HQ was in sight, he thought about how Dana would react, surely she'd be impressed that he'd come back with a chopper. Everything was going well, a little too well.

Mercer leapt up from nowhere and balanced himself on the front of the helicopter, he squatted before Zeke and allowed a callous smirk to ride up his face "You've disappointed me, Dunbar" Mercer yelled.

Zeke desperately jolted the helicopter about in an attempt to throw Mercer away, Cole hung helplessly below. He peered up trying to establish the issue when he spotted Mercer clinging to the front of the chopper. Cole clenched his teeth he was powerless to do anything, if he fired a bolt of electricity he could hurt Zeke. Zeke steadied the chopper when he realised his plight, of losing Mercer, was futile.

"We had an agreement" Mercer said as he dropped his smirk an adopted an aggressive stance.

Cole could not hear the conversation that was taking place above, the choppers blades were far too loud. Cole released his foot from the rope and whilst clinging on tightly he looked below, he was a long way up but the drop wouldn't harm him, he let go.

"The deals off, However," Mercer raised his hands and looked below "I'll take the conduit in exchange." He flashed a cruel smirk before leaping from the helicopter and landing with his fists onto the ground below.

The ground shook from underneath Cole, he fell but quickly got to his feet and darted his sights about, Mercer was nowhere to be seen. He looked up toward Zeke whom looked as if he was landing the helicopter atop a nearby rooftop and in this moment of distraction, one of Mercer's tendrils weaved it's way around Cole's neck tightly and lifted him from the floor. Cole couldn't breathe he pelted the tendril with his fists before expelling a large blast of electricity. Mercer didn't wait around, the electricity travelled down his tendril and burned him but he didn't let this prevent him. He'd tire Cole out and then consume him. Mercer leapt from building to building, enduring the continuous wave of electrocutions. Cole was pulled behind him clenched within the tendril like a ragdoll, he was fading fast but he had one more trick up his sleeve.

Cole halted his outward assault and instead brought all of his energy inward, he began bioleaching Mercer from his tendril. It provided Cole continuous healing and managed to keep him afloat in consciousness. Mercer was feeling the strain whilst he dashed about, he could feel his energy rapidly leaving his body. Mercer couldn't take anymore, he accepted that he couldn't consume the conduit.

Mercer released Cole with a violent swing of his tendril and Cole landed on a heap on a rooftop. Mercer settled beside him with a look of fury. Cole took several disturbed deep breaths whilst he choked and spluttered for oxygen. Mercer couldn't allow him to recover, he spotted an nearby water tower not too far from the two and assumed the water would certainly have fatal effects. He pulled Cole up from the floor by his throat once more which immediately caused the bioleach to continue but it wouldn't matter if Mercer was fast.

Mercer pounced over and ripped the lid from the water tower, "If I can't have your power, no one can!" he yelled within his enraged state and he violently threw Cole inside.

Cole caught a glimpse of the water the moment before he landed into it and as he made contact with it he let out an excruciating scream. Mercer gave a callous laugh as he slammed the lid down so hard into the water tower it became lodged and stuck trapping Cole within his watery prison.


	11. Chapter 11

Zeke circled the immediate area within the chopper several times after he had lost the positions of both Mercer and Cole. His phone began to ring and he answered.

"Zeke, where are you?" it was Dana "Zeke?"

"Have you been watching the camera's?" he asked, his voice slightly panicked.

"That's the thing, we've lost seven cameras around the HQ," Dana replied "I don't see you."

"I'm in the chopper, near HQ" Zeke replied "Do you see Cole?"

Dana checked the monitors "No, I don't see… wait a sec."

Dana's attention was drawn to a monitor, in which her brother was displayed seemingly looking directly into the camera. He seemed aware that he was being watched. Mercer neared the camera and looked up to it from below, he glared into it and smirked before displaying his blade and jumping toward it and then the image faded into static as the camera was destroyed.

"It's Alex!" Dana called down the phone "he's destroying the cameras; you have to get back here."

"Not without Cole!" Zeke replied.

"If you stay out there he'll target you!"

"Cole's in danger." Zeke replied "I'm not gonna just leave him,"

Heller approached Dana from behind, he'd been listening to the conversation. He closed his eyes and sent out a pulse with Cole McGrath in mind and after picking up a minute trace he took the phone from Dana.

"Get your ass back in here now," Heller commanded "I'll track down your friend."

"Meet me at the chopper," Zeke said after a moment of silence "I'm not leaving without Cole."

Heller grumbled but sensed there'd be no convincing him, against his better judgement, Heller left for the roof. He ascended the stairs with haste and once outside, he shielded his face away from the blast of air released from the rotating blades of the helicopter. But Heller wasn't alone, several infected had clamoured their way up the building and were making a charge at Heller. Zeke immediately retreated into the sky, he didn't want the helicopter damaged. Heller didn't have time for this, he angrily thumped the roof with his hammerfists and sent the majority of the attackers backward which bought him enough time to send a pulse. The signal was weak but it was there and luckily not too far away. Heller decided against riding the helicopter and stayed his search on foot, he released several pulses to stay connected to Cole's whereabouts.

Zeke struggled to keep focus on Heller whilst he moved at rapid speed, jumping and jostling and gliding through the City roads. Heller stopped on a roof top and waved both hands in the air to indicate to Zeke that Cole was close. Zeke took the copter into descend and landed it on the edge of the building. He clambered out and rushed to Heller's side. Heller let out another pulse to confirm his suspicions and he pointed to the water tower.

Zeke rushed to the broken tower, he punched at the tank. The lid was caved in, there was no way he was opening it.

"Step aside," Heller said, he didn't give Zeke much of a window of time to do so as he charged in and clamped his hands around the lid. After a bit of straining he released it and tossed it from the roof.

Zeke climbed up and checked inside, he caught a glimpse of the top half of Cole's body poking from the water but he wasn't moving "Cole!" he yelled down, his voice echoed.

Cole didn't respond. Zeke feared the worst, seeing his friend submerged in water "we gotta get him outta there!" he began to clamber up the tank.

Heller hauled himself up too he gave Zeke no warning as he pushed him backwards from the tank and let loose his blades in a frenzied attack on the water tower. The water spilt out onto the roof as the tank failed to withstand the assault and Heller was able to pull Cole from the wreckage.

Zeke leant over his friend, who had his eyes closed and was not responding. "C'mon man," he gave him some gentle slaps to the face, then he rested his hands onto his chest, his t-shirt was soaked through, and then he held his ear above Cole's mouth, "he's breathing," Zeke gave a sigh of relief.

"Good," Heller replied "I don't know how he survived."

Zeke didn't either, water was Cole's weakness he should have been dead, "we should get back."

"Yeah," Heller nodded "You two take the chopper, I'll be close."

Zeke huddled his arms under Cole and dragged him towards the helicopter. He got him into the back and strapped him in securely. The he set about piloting the helicopter. He raced ahead, desperate to get Cole into the HQ quickly to recover. The helicopter was metres away from landing when the engine suddenly cut out and the helicopter landed rather abruptly.

Zeke turned to check on Cole, to see, to his surprise, that he was sitting up. He'd unintentionally sapped a little of the choppers power.

"Zeke?" Cole's voice was gravelly and his eyes were blood shot, he looked terrible.

"Welcome back, brother!" Zeke grinned "you gave us all a scare!"

"I thought I was a goner there" he admitted.

"So did we," Zeke replied "we're back at HQ, come on we'll get you patched up."

Zeke left the helicopter and helped Cole from the chopper. Cole gave several groans as he walked, he was aching all over, "I should be dead," he muttered.

"But you're not!" Zeke smiled "that's all that counts."

"What if…" Cole thought back to his meeting with Pariah, in which Pariah had informed him that he could tell that Cole was a conduit. He had done something else to him at that time, Cole hadn't felt the same since but he didn't know why. Cole remembered the moment in the water tank, the excruciating pain and the moment that he managed to disable his power. He had managed to turn off his conduit abilities in order to save his own life before falling unconscious, something he had never been able to achieve since his powers were first activated. It seemed, Pariah was attempted to erase, to fix, the 'anomaly' but he was disturbed during the process. Cole came to the realisation that Pariah had inadvertently unlocked a new form of control, for Cole.

"Let's get you inside," Zeke had continued to drag Cole along whilst he'd become lost in thought.

The two passed Heller who was holding the door open for them and then he entered after them. They descended the stairs, appreciative to be within the walls of their safe haven. But it was a short lived welcoming.

As they reached ground level it became apparent that the HQ had been breached. The corridors were trashed with tables, chairs and vending machines. The lights were off and the wiring had been ripped from the walls. There were large scratch marks on each wall as they passed through and it was obvious to them that Mercer had been here.

"Maya!" Heller launched down the corridor leaving the two behind "Maya!"


	12. Chapter 12

Zeke and Cole entered into the monitoring room to see that things looked very different to how they'd left it. Thick engrained claw marks on the wall could be traced to understand the patterns of Mercer's vicious assault. The room was trashed, tables and chairs swept haphazardly to the corners of the room, clutter filled the floors and more than half of the monitors were showing blank screens.

Heller had already checked the dorm room for Maya, he charged towards Cole and grabbed him by his t-shirt "my daughter is missing because of you!" he was enraged and he Jabbed a finger angrily toward Zeke whilst he spat his words "because you two wanted to play hero! And I had to run around saving your asses!" Heller's grip tightened "he's got Maya, that monster had Maya, because of you!"

Cole clenched his teeth and grabbed Heller's hand and aggressively tossed it away, he took on a hostile stance and allowed an arc of lightning to flare up around him, whilst he glared at Heller.

"You wanna go?" Heller roared as his arm took on the formation of a large blade.

"Daddy?"

Heller's eyes widened and he immediately retracted his blade to the sound of Maya's voice. He turned to face his daughter who stood in the door way. Maya rested herself within the door frame, still weak from the virus and she had tears down her face.

"Amaya!" Heller called out as he immediately sank to her level and wrapped his arms around her "I'm never gonna let you outta my sight again."

"He took Dana," she cried "I hid and he didn't know I was here."

"You did good, baby girl" Heller tightened his grasp "don't you worry, everything's gonna be alright. Daddy's gonna get Dana back. I'll fix this, you'll see and we'll go home."

Cole and Zeke, hadn't spoken, reluctant to disturb their reunion but Cole eventually stepped forward, "Where do we start?" he sighed.

"We?" Heller turned to face Cole and gave him a ferocious glare "there is no 'we'," he spat "I'm taking my daughter, I'm getting Dana back and I'm finishing this."

Cole shook his head and turned to Zeke.

"I don't care what you two clowns do!" Heller spat "just stay away from me and my daughter."

"C'mon, man" Zeke replied "we're in this together, I mean you gotta think of Maya."

Heller's eyes were almost stabbing into Zeke's, he only remained composed because Maya was present. He held his stare for several seconds before taking Maya by the shoulders and leading her out the door, leaving Zeke and Cole behind.

Alex had secured his own base, a half destroyed building on the edge of the quarantined city. From the outside it looked partially demolished and deserted, but inside it was surprisingly quite well preserved. Alex sat in a chair with his arm rested on his knee as he leant forward in front of his sister.

"This is no one's fault but your own - You do understand that?" Mercer said.

Dana had heard these words before from his brother, the last time they had spoken. She was unable to answer, her mouth was concealed behind a gag and she was bound tightly to the chair. Her eyes were stained in tears whilst she looked on in fright, she couldn't see her brothers face, his head was lowered and concealed beneath his hood.

"You know somewhere deep down, it has occurred to me that you could be different" Mercer said and he allowed himself a rare smile which as quickly as it appeared, it diminished, "I've found no redeemable qualities among people, none." He took a long drawn out breath "So I asked myself, why, why are you doing this? Why are you willing to sacrifice yourself in order to save others… sure everyone would lie, portray themselves in this manner… but really when it all comes down to it, you all scurry around like ants worrying about your own lives…. Maybe we are the only two people in this world who understand, it's not just about ourselves, is it?" he looked into his sisters eyes for the first time during the conversation and continued "maybe it's our unique perspective… Growing up together, it was tough, heh" Mercer was quickly reminded by his own thoughts that he in fact was not Mercer and he swung his eyes to the floor once more, but seeing who he identified to be his sister sat in front of him made it difficult to strip his personality, Mercer's personality, away.

Dana was unable to speak, but she had begun to sob loudly as her eyes pleaded Alex to let her go. He raised his head once more and presented her with an expression that was akin to disgust. Right now Dana was frightened, she was frightened for her own life. Every feeling of stopping Alex was being overshadowed by the fear for her own life and whilst Mercer watched on, he silently came to the revelation that she was exactly like this rest of mankind. After all, she should have known it was going to come to this, yet here she was fearful of her own life, above all else right now wanting to live.

Alex stood but before he could bring any further action in fruition, a crow landed heavily upon the windowsill. It looked partially infected but it brimmed, ever so slightly, with a very vague white aura. It eyed the pair curiously and began cawing loudly as if to beckon Alex to the window.

Back at HQ, Cole sat on a chair amongst the discarded clutter within the monitoring room.

"Maybe we shouldn't have come here," Zeke sighed, he sat across the room toying with the radio he'd taken from the helicopter, he was attempting to make it work.

Cole simply let out a long sigh and allowed his eyes to close, whilst he relaxed.

"He'll come around," Zeke said.

Cole opened his eyes and leant forward in his seat "Yeah," he replied "how's the radio coming along?"

"I've replaced some of the parts, it wasn't in too bad a shape," Zeke replied and he stood and threw his screwdriver down, he pulled up a chair and sat next to Cole to take a break.

The two lounged back in their seats and looked about the mess, before Cole turned to Zeke. He noticed his friend was wearing an over the shoulder bag that he hadn't spotted before.

"I'm liking your purse," Cole smirked.

"Oh this!" Zeke quickly pulled it on top of his lap "I took this from the chopper, can't believe I forgot about it."

He pulled it open and began to rummage around inside, Cole curiously leant in to see Zeke remove a solid metal box from the inside. He threw the bag aside and held the box at various angles in front of his face, "it's locked!" he said.

"Here, let me" Cole touched the lock with his finger tip and let out a brief and precise bolt to damage the lock.

"Careful," Zeke took it back "we don't know what's inside."

After the lock was broken, it was easy for Zeke to pry it open with his fingertips. The two exchanged curious glances before looking at the object. Inside the box lay on top of velvet covering was a single test tube. Zeke carefully picked it out with his fingers to see that it was hall filled with a strange substance. It wasn't quite liquid or gas and it emitted and pulsed with brightness. Zeke carefully rotated it within his fingers.

"What is that?" Cole asked.

Zeke shrugged, he hesitated but then rested his fingers on the cork that was holding the substance inside.

Cole left his seat and pulled Zeke's hand away, "Woah, don't open it."

Zeke obeyed and after a moment were the two simply observed the strange item Zeke piped up with his thoughts "what if it's whitelight?"


	13. Chapter 13

Authors Note: Just wanted to mention that within this chapter I've attempted to explain more about Pariah and about Whitelight. I've played Prototype and Infamous 1 and 2. But haven't read any official comics/stories so I'm pretty much unaware of any additional information they may have in them, so I want to apologise in advance if something I've written is inconsistent and somehow doesn't stay true to the official games (I've really tried to make this all make sense and stay true to both games!). If something's off feel free to let me know (I'll see if I can fix it) and equally, if it all makes sense and you like it then a comment would be nice :D ... Hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

Alex peered from the window and traced the crow's flight, it landed on the road below, beside Pariah who was glowering back. Alex gave an annoyed groan; he didn't say anything more to Dana. He swung his legs over the windowsill and leapt from the window.

He approached Pariah, whom as ever expressed nothing, said nothing. Neither spoke for a minute whilst Mercer curiously eyed the crow. He was sure it was the crow that had been shot by a sniper earlier. It seemed very fond of Pariah.

"I've been watching you," Pariah eventually muttered.

Alex glared at the boy from below his hood, he was sure he'd never once spotted Pariah since the two had parted ways. The boy removed his hands that had been cradled behind his back and raised them slightly outward from his sides. Alex remained where he stood but was mindful of a potential threat being unleashed by the boy, but instead the crow beside the boy lifted its wings and held them there until Pariah dropped his own. Then the crow simply returned to pecking the pavement.

"So…" Alex rubbed his hand on his chin "you control the bird?" he asked, but he already believed it was more than that. Pariah had admitted he'd been watching Mercer, a crow could have easily blended in with the scenery whilst tracking Mercer and he would have never noticed it stalking him.

Pariah shook his head and widened his eyes, "No," he said "I am the bird, the bird is me."

"What are you telling me?" Alex replied.

"Didn't you see it? When I cleansed the bird?" Pariah closed his eyes "I cleansed the infection and then I became the bird."

"You're not making sense! You're talking in riddles!" Alex growled "why are you telling me all of this?"

"It's the nature of the whitelight," Pariah replied, maintain his monotone like voice, "I've waited for so long but soon I will cleanse everything."

Mercer's eyes widened and he was beginning to understand. The white light was Pariah, somehow Gentek had managed to extract it from him in order to cure the DX-1118 virus. However, at that time Mercer had arranged for that sample to be tainted, with his own blood, for his own ends and upon its release it simply spread more of the 'Mercer' virus. "You _are_ white light," Alex murmured.

This notion began a spiral of thoughts within Mercer. What was Pariah hoping to achieve? He wanted Mercer to consume Heller, so that the virus would be 'whole' but why? If his intention was to eradicate the virus, eradicate Mercer, than the boy was probably more than capable of taking care of both him and Heller himself. Alex didn't understand his role in all of this and didn't know what the consequences were if he was to refuse Pariah. But nothing had changed for now, he still wanted Heller.

"I've been waiting for a very long time," Pariah said "And you are still incomplete."

"So I consume Heller… What then?" Mercer asked.

The boy cocked his head, as if confused why Mercer would want to know "when I released the virus at Penn station, after I escaped the facility…"

"You? You released the virus?!" Mercer interrupted, shocked with the revelation that the latest outbreak was brought about by Pariah who so leisurely admitted to it.

"I realised that it wasn't enough," Pariah looked slightly disappointed "it didn't work, the virus when released like that couldn't produce sentient hosts. I want to cleanse them to remove all of their flaws. And it won't work without the DX-1118 virus. After all, I tried that when they held me in Vandenberg air force base. I could see all of their flaws written within their DNA but when I tried to cleanse them they weren't resilient enough," his eyes burrowed momentarily into Mercer's "and they died."

Mercer couldn't help but display his shock, it brought up a memory that was not his own, it concerned something called Project Crusade, the secret Blackwatch project that involved Pariah. Until now, Mercer hadn't known how any of those people had died. Alex overlooked Pariah with a great concealed fear, Pariah was clearly something that was far beyond Mercer's comprehension and whatever his ultimate plan was, Alex knew he had a major role to play but that notion meant that Mercer still had control and he wasn't about to do what Pariah wanted if it wouldn't benefit him.

"We should look for James Heller," Pariah said "I don't want to wait anymore." And with that Pariah turned and began to walk away. The crow ascended and began to follow Pariah but eventually left in the opposite direction leaving Mercer behind, contemplating his next move.

Back at HQ, Zeke had managed to get the radio working and had successfully tuned in to several blackwatch broadcasts, each of them beginning to unravel their plan but it had been a long process. It sounded as though Blackwatch were planning on bringing in nuclear weapons to deploy and level NYZ. It had been a last resort plan previously and they obviously hadn't thought of any further contingencies.

"You hearing this?" Zeke called over.

Cole nodded and the two listened closely. But there weren't many transmissions between the white noise. They'd guessed Blackwatch must have been running low on numbers by now. With two prototypes, a conduit and multitudes of infected running around in NYZ, this must have depleted numbers rather rapidly.

"Zeke," Cole called "we should go after Heller, if what's in that tube is really whitelight – it's the cure,"

"You're right," Zeke nodded "but he seemed pretty mad. I don't think he trusts us, ya know."

"Dana would know what to do," Cole sighed.

"You had any luck tracing them?" Zeke was of course referring to Cole's ability to see their neuro-electronic energy.

Cole shook his head "there's too much electricity in here to be able to see," he said "when Mercer slashed through the wires around the building it sort of flooded the room, masked his movement."

"He's smart," Zeke replied.

Cole swung his eyes in Zeke's direction "he's dead" he scowled.

The two didn't deliberate any longer they left the HQ and went in search for the others.

"I'm getting a trace!" Cole announced.

"Whose?" Zeke asked.

"Mercer!" Cole growled as he spoke his name.

"What about Heller?"

Cole tried again and picked up a separate trace showing Heller walking in the opposite direction with Maya, "that way," he pointed.

"Who do we follow?" Zeke asked "Dana may be in danger, but Maya's infected… she's running out of time."

Cole was torn for a moment, he wanted to save Dana and nothing would give him greater pleasure right now then to enact his vengeance out on Mercer, the longer he remained at large the bigger risk he posed and Cole was angry, he wasn't going to let Mercer get away with everything he'd done. But Maya was dying, it could be too late if they waited around. Cole took a sigh, he'd reached his decision.

"This way," Cole pointed.

Zeke didn't question him and the two swiftly headed off.


	14. Chapter 14

Heller held Maya close, she was draped over his arms, held in front and unconscious, her breathing was strained, her face marred with open sores. Heller overlooked his little girl -heartbroken, there was nothing he could do to help her. And here he was walking around aimlessly, numb aside the anger. He was taking Maya to Dana, inwardly predicting future scenarios about what could happen, future scenarios that he didn't really want to think about. All he knew now was that Dana was alive and had remained in the same location since he's been tracking her.

Alex lay on the roof of a damaged car, below the apartment he held Dana in. He looked up into the red stained guy, blighted with the infection. The clouds were thick and it had begun to rain. He remained unmoving, dead like. Blacklight helicopters were sure to notice him soon, he was counting on it. A couple of hours had passed by since Dana's abduction and it had given him time to contemplate, to piece it all together. It was only a matter of time now, he was sure they'd be here any moment to rescue Dana and to fall into his trap.

Heller was getting closer, the pulse between them was growing stronger and shorter. He quickened his pace but was immediately brought to a halt at the sight of Mercer laying there. He hadn't seemed to notice him from this distance. Heller had no idea how to proceed. After several moments of inaction, Mercer made the first move.

He rolled from the car and crouched behind it effortlessly lifting it from the air, he launched it into the sky at quite a distance and watched as it collided with a helicopter. He smirked at Heller and evoked his bladed arm scraping it on the road in front of him slowly, as if to threaten him. His assault on the helicopter hadn't gone unnoticed and others from the fleet began to make their way towards the two. Heller scowled at his opponent, he'd consumed him once and he could do it again, but he had Maya to think about right now. The sky grumbled above the two and the heavens opened, the helicopters flailed about in the sudden storm, but the tanks had no issue reaching them.

"You're a fool, Heller" Mercer smirked "I gave you everything and you do nothing with it, that power is wasted on you!"

Heller didn't speak he had no choice but to remain with Maya in his arms and hope that he could protect her and get her to safety, if Mercer was to launch an assault.

"Don't you see?" Mercer said "In my world, no one will die, no one will be sick … You wouldn't have lost Collette and you wouldn't have to lose your daughter."

"Don't you dare say her name!" Heller roared "don't you ever fucking say her name!"

Alex dismissed him with a shrug and a shake of his head "In my world ... in Pariah's world … your daughter still has a chance," he said "don't fight me, join me... and your daughter will be saved."

"I'd sooner we both died, than join you!" Mercer yelled furiously.

"And this is why Pariah chose me," Alex shook his head "I've had a lot of time to think, I understand Pariah's vision, hell I wanted the same thing, but you stood in my way."

Cole and Zeke had followed Heller's trail, he hadn't hurried himself and the two were intrigued to see where he had gone.

"You think he'll be with Dana?" Zeke asked.

Cole didn't respond.

"This is the opposite direction, right?" Zeke asked again, he huffed as the two sprinted.

Again Cole didn't answer, he simply lead the way.

"Dya think Dana's gonna be alright,man, I mean she was taken a while ago now," Zeke piped up again.

"Zeke," Cole sighed "kinda trying to concentrate here."

The two had decided to follow Heller and Maya in the hope to offer her the antidote before it was too late.

"there," Cole pointe to an ominous looking building.

The two approached a huge metal shutter that was caved in and half way ajar.

"Why the hell did he come here?" Zeke asked as the two bowed under the opening to get inside.

Inside was a large truck and stacked on top were barrels upon barrels.

Cole scanned the area looking for the trace. The past vision of Heller paused before Cole, it didn't quite look at him rather through him as though he had been expecting him to be here.

"_Look," _Heller's vision spoke, it phased out from crystal clear to fragmented static _"I dunno how that electricity of yours works, I overheard Zeke telling Dana you could see the past with it …. So, here's hoping you hear this," _he sighed.

"See anything?" Zeke interrupted, oblivious to Heller's message.

"_On the trucks… that's bloodtox, it's lethal to the virus" _Heller said "_bring it to Times square, Mercer's there…"_

"Cole?" Zeke called.

"_Do what you gotta do, take me down with him if you have to," _Heller looked backwards towards the vision of Maya lay on the floor "_without Maya, I don't have anything to live for… When it comes to it, take Mercer down at whatever cost."_

"Woah…" Cole snapped back from his powers "now that was weird."

"You look as white as a ghost," Zeke said "you okay, brother?"

"I could hear him, Zeke" Cole said "Heller, he left us a message."

"Really? What he say?"

"Get in the truck," Cole pointed "I'll explain on the way"

Cole began to climb up onto the passenger side.

"Woah, woah, what ya doing?" Zeke asked "get off man, you'll break our ride!"

"Just drive, Zeke" Cole smiled as he sat down, quietly confident that he would not break the truck, not now that he could turn his power off temporarily.

As the two approached Times Square, they could see the activity rising. Infected were flooding in and racing ahead and although Zeke had to swerve a couple of times to miss them, the truck was largely ignored. The sky had filled with helicopters and tanks were rolling in. The prototypes could be seen not too far in the distance.

"I'm gonna go on ahead" Cole said "I'll clear the road, when it's clear charge through and get the truck as close to Mercer as possible," Cole instructed.

"I hear ya," Zeke gave a salute and watched as Cole leapt from the truck.

Cole sprinted a little distance ahead. He stopped for a moment to reinstate his power. He was expected a subtle buzzing, the sensation he could always feel around himself but instead he felt throngs of electricity pulse through him, stronger than he'd ever felt before, he hadn't been expecting this. The sky grumbled and after several seconds a fork of lightning plunged, from the sky, into him, followed by another. The storm increased wildly and the clouds released a torrent of rain. Cole was lifted from the floor and became supercharged the rain cascaded around him, throwing sparks from him in every direction.

Zeke watched in awe from the driver's seat within the truck, as Cole lowered but hovered a little distance from the floor and began to edge forward. As he passed down the road every street light bulb within his proximity blew.

"Mercer!" Cole yelled furiously.

Mercer's attention was instantly drawn to Cole, he had been in conversation with Heller and had been wearing a smug expression which quickly soured and turned to rage at the sight of Cole infused with electricity.

"How did you -?!" Alex yelled, he thought Cole was dead, he almost sounded frightened but quickly composed himself "You're persistent, I'll give you that."

Heller seized his opportunity to pounce up the building, with Maya in his arms, he leapt through the window corresponding to were Dana was being held to find her tied to a chair.

Heller lay Maya on the ground and quickly tended to Dana. She rushed to Maya's side the moment she was free, "she's not looking too good," she muttered regrettably.

Heller had his back turned, he appeared to be gazing out the window. From up here the two could see the rain teeming down, illuminated by the flares of electricity escaping Cole.

"What's going on?!" Dana asked.

"Take care of Maya" Heller replied and then immediately, he vaulted out from the window.


	15. Chapter 15

Mercer leered into Cole's eyes, with concealed trepidation awaiting his assault. He hadn't been this powerful earlier.

Cole spread his hands and pushed electricity around him, clearing the dead traffic and impending infected that had been bounding towards them. Mercer brought his arm up and summoned his biomass shield which he crouched behind, it did little to prevent an electric shock and when the assault was over he stood to find that Cole was nowhere to be seen.

This was Zeke's cue, he slammed his foot down on the pedal and the truck accelerated. The truck charged full speed ahead and Zeke leapt from it just in time before it smashed into the building Dana was being held inside. Zeke made a swift exit, running as fast as he could into a nearby alley.

Cole watched from above waiting for Zeke to arrive to safety, waiting for his moment to strike. He hurled himself from the building, removing his amp from his back and landed with an almighty crash amidst the barrels. The bloodtox expelled from them immediately and a plume of red smog was released into the air around them.

Heller, from his leap out of the window, landed before Mercer and grabbed him, the two fell to their knees, choking and spluttering. Mercer was given no other option but to try to retreat. But Heller wasn't going to let him get away, Heller restrained him and wrestled him to the ground. Their struggle was evenly matched and they were both weakening by the second.

The bloodtox release hadn't gone unnoticed by Blackwatch and all of their forces took advantage of the situation and began to charge in, bullets fired and ricocheted in every direction and missiles were focussed within the centre of the bloodtox smog. The infected were fleeing, only to be caught up in explosive blasts delivered by the copters above.

Zeke emerged from the alleyway to see that Cole was recovering from his landing. He indicated his intentions with a pointed finger, Cole nodded, and Zeke headed into the building to deliver Maya her cure.

Cole overlooked the struggle between the prototypes and was readying himself back into the action. He launched from the truck and sprinted towards them but was halted by something unknown. His insides felt like they were twisting inside out and he managed a struggled scream as he stretched round to see that Pariah was stood not too far away, arm extended. Cole had no idea what the boy was doing to him but the pain was excruciating. With all the concentrated power Cole could muster, he summoned an arc that threw him backwards and into safety. He lay for a moment amongst the cracked tarmac as he recovered.

Zeke quickly located Dana and Maya. Dana was leant over her, expressing her concern at Maya's condition. It would probably be any moment that she would turn beyond return, she would become one of them. Maya pulled her pistol from her jacket and held it close, just in case.

"Dana!" Zeke called.

"Zeke!" she leapt up and wrapped her arms around him.

Zeke hadn't expected such a welcome but he had to get to the point quickly "I have this," he said as he pulled the test-tube from the over shoulder bag.

"Is that-?" she replied.

"We think it's whitelight," Zeke said "it's the cure, right?"

"Where did you get this?" Dana asked as she snatched it from his hands.

"Blackwatch were transporting it somewhere, they left it in the chopper" Zeke replied.

"Okay, but are you certain that this is whitelight?" Dana asked.

Zeke shook his head.

"I can't just give Maya this and hope that it's whitelight, Zeke."

As if aware of the conversation Maya began convulsing in protest. Dana lay the test tube aside and held her down; Zeke leant down and assisted her.

"What's the other option?" Zeke asked, knowing there wasn't an alternative.

"You're right," she sighed and she picked up the test tube "I hope I'm doing the right thing." She nervously pulled the cork from the tube and tossed it aside. The white light was wispy and bright and slighted floated about like smoke within the constraints of the tube.

"I just need to get this into her blood stream," she said before looking at Zeke anxiously "hold her down."

Dana placed the tip of the tube to Maya's mouth, she writhed around uncooperatively but Dana persisted. She held the girls nose forcing her to inhale the vapour and after a single inhale it was gone. Maya began to choke and take deep inhales. Dana dropped the tube and backed away clenching her face with worry but after several seconds she settled and was seemingly asleep.

"You did it, Dana" Zeke placed his hand on her shoulder and smiled.

Before she could take any form of relief, the radio, Zeke had kept in his bag, began to splutter Blackwatch messages, he quickly retrieved it and held it between them so that they could both hear the broadcast.

"_Are the nukes into position, over?"_

The two listened intently to the series of communications, warning them that the nuclear explosives were nearly in position and they had roughly twenty minutes before NYZ would be levelled flat by them.

"We have to get out of here!" Dana said.

Outside, the battle was still very much raging on.

Mercer gripped Heller by the throat, whilst Heller's claws repeatedly jabbed into Mercer's abdomen. The bloodtox was beginning to expand offering them both a little relief, which wasn't welcomed by Heller.

"You fool!" Mercer raged "You're not James Heller, you are the virus!"

Heller responded with a torrent of slashes.

"Maya is not your daughter!" he bellowed as he tightened his grip around Heller's throat "we are the same!"

"We" –slash- "are" –slash- "not" –slash- "the" –slash-"same!" Heller roared and his attack became more frenzied.

Cole lifted himself upon his feet, he'd landed not too far away from the two and wasted no time charging in between them. Cole released a violent wave of electricity which sent Mercer flying into a wall and Heller to the ground. He offered his hand to help Heller up, but he shunned him and leapt to his feet "what are you doing?!" Heller spat "I told you to take us both out if need be!"

Cole was given no time to reply as Pariah made his appearance known once again. Cole, more easily this time, evaded the boy's power. And Heller took charge toward Pariah with his hammerfists extended.

Pariah effortlessly dodged the attacks and he looked as if he was toying with Heller. But it fast became apparent to Heller and Cole, who overlooked, that Pariah wasn't willing to reciprocate attacks, he simply evaded. Heller was still important to Pariah, he couldn't damage him. Regardless, Heller continued his assault only taking a moment to shout out to Cole "Take Mercer down!"

Mercer landed with a thud before Cole, sending a shockwave through the ground. He leered at Cole with a confident sneer, Cole didn't seem as powerful as he had been earlier. It seemed that Pariah had managed to sap away some of his power.

The rain was clearing up but without his enhanced state of power every droplet that hit Cole's body now felt like a sharp pin prick, Cole grimaced as he overlooked his nemesis.

"Maybe I'll get to consume you after all" Mercer smirked and with that he picked up and hurled a shell of a car in Cole's direction.

Cole caught the car with a net of electricity and reflected it back, Mercer simply ducked to avoid it.

"You have to be quicker than that," Mercer snarled.

Cole sensing his disadvantage in close range combat immediately retreated. He passed through the wall of moving bullets, protecting himself with his polarity wall and he quickly began to climb a nearby building, he could see some electrical cables up above.

Alex hadn't followed him immediately; he wanted to toy with him a little first. Although he had left him for dead earlier, he hadn't considered that bout a victory. He wanted to consume the conduit but it had been of no use with his constant bioleaching. Mercer had noticed Pariah's ability to render Cole temporarily vulnerable and the next attack from Pariah would be his chance, Mercer would just have to lure him in.


	16. Chapter 16

Zeke lead the way, pistol held firmly in front. Dana in tow with Maya's arms around her neck, carrying Maya on her back, they trailed down the stairs the buildings exit was in sight.

Cole scrambled up the building, narrowly avoiding the cars, concrete and anything that was within Mercer's reach to hurl up at him. Enough was enough, Cole was almost within reach of the power cables, Mercer extended his whipfist and it quickly distended towards Cole.

Zeke and Dana had made it outside

"Zeke," Dana called "there's an empty chopper over there!" she pointed.

"Well spotted!" he said "err, you go on… I'll catch up."

Dana eyed Zeke with apprehension, but didn't have time to argue against what he was about to do and she made a dart for the helicopter, carrying Maya. Zeke lined up his pistol, closed one eye and pulled the trigger, several times. All the bullets were direct hits into Mercer.

Mercer retracted his whipfist and turned to face Zeke. Zeke's triumphant smile quickly turned into desperation as he darted in the other direction. His moment of heroics had bought Cole the time he needed to recharge but now Mercer was readying a lash toward Zeke.

Cole, feeling revitalized from his charge, clung to the building and watched as Zeke scurried away. He had no choice but to now jump to Zeke's rescue.

"I'm really gonna regret this," Cole muttered to himself before releasing his grip of the building. During the fall, he quickly pulled his amp in front and landed in an almighty shockwave behind Mercer. The wave threw Mercer onto his back and his whiplash missed Zeke by centimeters.

Mercer leapt up furiously and gripped Cole by the throat before he had a chance to make his own escape. Cole grimaced and quickly began to bioleach him.

"This again?" Mercer yelled furiously as he span with him in his grips, building up momentum for his throw. He hurled Cole through the air but before he was aware of what was happening, Cole collided into a helicopters missile meant for Mercer.

Cole landed in a heap on the floor, he strained his eyes open, every inch of his body ached. Before he had a chance to get up Mercer loomed over him and scraped him from the floor and hurled him into the air a second time.

This time, Cole was incapable of movement, his body lay in protest among the rubble of a desolate building foundations.

Pariah appeared before Mercer, having broken away from Heller's tirade of attacks momentarily, the boy narrowed his eyes "leave the conduit," he said "he is not part of the plan, you must consume Heller."

Mercer scowled at the boy and pushed him aside, he took off ahead to pursue Cole, against Pariah's will, leaving Pariah to deal with Heller once more.

Zeke leapt in the helicopter and Dana breathed a sigh of relief, Maya was strapped in the back. She hadn't regained consciousness but her sores were clearing up and her body temperature had almost lowered to normal.

"What do we do?" Dana asked.

Zeke turned to the console within the cockpit and raised the helicopter into flight. He circled the areas several time, taking shots at the gathering infected and aiming primarily for Mercer.

"You're gonna get us killed!" Dana yelled from the back "wait look there!" she pointed. The other choppers, what was left of them, had begun a sudden unified retreat "that does not bode well" she said.

"They must be getting ready to nuke this place," Zeke replied "we gotta get Cole and Heller!"

It would be extremely dangerous to get the helicopter anywhere near them, but Dana reluctantly nodded and Zeke took the helicopter into a descent.

Cole had recovered somewhat and was haphazardly throwing electric grenades behind him in an effort to broaden the distance between him and Mercer. Zeke had no chance of getting near him with sparks flying everywhere. First he neared Heller, as close as was safe for Dana to call out to him.

"We gotta go, James!" she yelled at the top of her voice to ensure she was heard beneath the helicopter rotors.

"Forget about me!" Heller called back.

"Maya!" Dana yelled "Maya's gonna be okay!"

Heller gave a huge, grateful smile but Pariah wasn't willing to give him an option of escape. Pariah's crow possessed by him, swooped in and spitefully clawed at Heller's face. Zeke was forced to lift the helicopter after infected began pouring in.

Zeke quickly steered above Cole, he'd created enough distance between him and Mercer for now.

"Cole!" Zeke yelled "we gotta go, Man!"

Cole lifted his head directly above, his eyes grew wide with his revelation, he knew Mercer was not going to let him leave. If Cole went with them he'd be signing their death sentences. He wasn't given a chance to respond, Mercer was closing in. Cole hesitated for a moment but turned away from the helicopter and bounded after Mercer, encased in electricity.

"Zeke, we have to leave!" Dana whispered regrettably "there's nothing more we can do."

Zeke ascended, but allowed the helicopter to hover still for a few moments whilst he mulled over his decision. Without saying a word he lifted the helicopter high into the air, he'd never forgive himself for this.


	17. Chapter 17

Cole, spurred by anger and adrenaline, charged forward in a desperate bout of fury, he lifted cars, concrete and debris from everywhere around him in bursts of electricity and one after the other he furiously brought them down on Mercer in a series of explosions. He continued his assault for several minutes before letting up, becoming exhausted. Cole panted and stood, still shaking, overlooking the chaos he had caused. After several moments the dust settled and Mercer was nowhere to be seen. However, there was some movement, a lone member of blackwatch, pulled himself from the wreckage on his hands and knees, edging himself towards Cole "don't hurt me," he begged, his voice strained beneath his mask.

Cole dismissed the electricity that was swarming from his hands to show that he was no threat.

"You have to help me," the blackwatch soldier begged, his voice strained and desperate, he stopped moving forward and writhed around on the road in front of Cole "I have a wife and a new born son" he whimpered "you can't leave me to die."

Cole didn't know what chance this poor man had, even if he did heal him, but he couldn't leave him to suffer. The conduit quickly approached him and laid his hands over him in an attempt to heal him.

Heller hadn't let up his assault since the two had started fighting and Pariah was yet to strike once. However, the scratch left by the crow tingled and burned into his flesh and he was unable to heal over it with his regenerative powers. Armed with this knowledge, Heller had a plan.

Cole settled his hand over the black watch soldier, but was taken by surprise when the man he was trying to help grabbed him by the ankle and pulled him onto the floor beneath him. The disguise faded as Mercer pounded Cole with his hammerfists. Cole was unable to counter and was taking a beating, he wasn't given the opportunity to initiate another bioleach.

After several moments, Heller spotted the struggle from the fringe of his vision and swiftly took this opportunity. He broke away from Pariah and launched at Mercer from behind, tightly restraining him around the throat with his arm. Mercer immediately let up his assault on Cole to shake Heller off.

Cole was in pretty bad shape, he looked into the sky above and tried to focus as the environment span around in his vision. He closed his eyes, to remedy himself back to his senses, he couldn't waste any time, he summoned up every inch of power from his being, the sky above let out a furious grumble and down came an almighty lightning bolt that struck the three of them. The strike was thick and fast and irradiated the immediate area, the current coursed through the prototypes forcing them to remain fixed to the spot to endure it.

Following his almighty blast, Cole used his static thrusters to slink away, and was shot scraping across the road a short distance away from the two.

Heller lay sprawled out on the floor, unmoving, he had received the brunt of the shock. Mercer rolled and landed on his hands and knees, panting wildly, slowly regenerating his flesh back into recovery. He slowly lifted up his head, his eyes were wild with rage and he shot to his feet.

Cole observed from his spot on the road, he lay on his back with his head tilted towards him, his body threw out tiny sparks which made him twitch slightly. He hadn't recovered enough for a counter attack, there was no way he could protect himself if Mercer struck now.

"Heller is weakened, now is your chance" called Pariah.

Alex flashed Pariah a ferocious look from beneath his hood, then he threw his eyes to Cole and clenched his fists. He paused momentarily but decided he'd comply. And once he consumed Heller, and empowered himself he would consume the conduit. Mercer didn't hesitate; he threw his blade into Heller's back, Cole overlooked, exhausted and powerless to help.

Heller let out a scream as he felt his DNA being sucked from inside of him, but it wasn't over yet. Heller darted his sights, looking for the white light crow. It sat, perched on a nearby car. In a heavy swoop Heller swiftly reached out for it with his tendrils and quickly consumed it into himself a couple of seconds before he was swallowed up by Mercer.

Cole sat up and backed away, shocked by the sight of what he had just witnessed. Pariah let out a piercing scream of anguish.

Mercer gripped his head and fell to his knees, his body jolted and spasmed and he'd appeared to lose all ability to control his regeneration, his physique swiftly changing between the many aliases he'd consumed as he fought to maintain the image of Mercer. He gripped the road and pierced the concrete with his hands as he attempted to raise his head "what the hell is happening to me?" he panted.

"You've ruined everything," Pariah snapped, he had quickly composed himself and spoke in his usual manner "you've doomed mankind."

Mercer strained, his body contracting and pulsing, incapable of any words but he'd managed to stabilize his guise.

Pariah threw his sights to Cole but he addressed both he and Mercer, "you'll never understand what you've done" he spoke "I was going to create the perfect world."

Cole struggled himself to his feet, he swayed and clenched his arm that he was certain had been broken, he grimaced at the nonsense the boy was spouting.

"Mercer was to spread the infection," Pariah glanced down regrettably "Heller would never have understood my vision, he hadn't embraced the virus like Alex."

"And that's your answer to a perfect world?" Cole shook his head "that virus has killed thousands of innocent people."

"But this time would have been different," Pariah replied "this time, I would have cleansed the world. Healed it. No more death, no more sickness. Just life. Alex was to spread a pure dose of the virus and I was to spread a pure dose of white light…. mankind could have realised their full potential. I was going to take the human race to the next level."

Mercer winced and panted as his own body began to turn against him and he began to speak "And what about me? Where did I fit into your little plan after the world was cleansed?"

Pariah was sure it was the virus talking, and not the personality of Mercer, it was after all within the instinct of a virus to thrive and to live. "You'd have been eradicated" Pariah replied calmly "a pure dose of white light administered within the first stages of the infection ensures free will would have remained intact. After the virus takes hold you become lost."

Cole simply listened; he didn't understand the full implications of Pariah's words.

Mercer smirked in an expression of contempt, but then immediately jolted in another throng of agony, "and those that don't receive the white light in time?" he strained.

Pariah, again, was aware that the virus was contemplating its own survival "they become an extension of me, they bend to my will. I did not want this for the human race, as you had wanted Alex. If you are referring to yourself, it was too late for you." Pariah sighed "Alex Mercer, I think that you have become everything you hate. You despised the human race and their selfish ways and now you are only concerned about your own fate, in fact, I can't tell if I am talking to Alex or the virus."

The words cut Alex deep, and he gritted his teeth but the pain prevented him from responding.

"You have no more purpose," Pariah whispered and he raised his hand and clenched his fists.

In an instant Mercer was torn up. His body, were broken, throwing out light, he let out a scream as he sank to the ground in a puddle of bubbling biomass brimming with white light.

Cole remained, eyes fixed on Pariah anticipating what would come next.

The boy turned to face him and gazed into him with his deep dark eyes "I would have saved you all," he said "Humanity is committing suicide, you, a carrier of the conduit gene, is evidence enough... a gene born out of desperation of advancement. Humanity trying to thrive amongst itself, individuals exceeding the rest within it's own species, but it's a flawed concept. Inevitably you will destroy yourselves."

Cole had nothing to say. Whatever this alternative was, Pariah believed in it wholeheartedly, even if Cole couldn't share his vision. The boy sunk his head and sat cross legged on the road, he closed his eyes and looked as if he had nothing further to say.

Cole remained for a moment more but there was nothing keeping him here, nothing except the gallons of water surrounding NYZ, with not a helicopter in sight. He had no idea how much time he had left, he wasted no more and he dashed away, leaving Pariah sat beside the stagnating biomass.


	18. Chapter 18

Cole hadn't stopped running, not once; he leached any electrical outlet that crossed his path to maintain his stamina and aid his recovery. He could see the large body of water on the horizon, edging a collapsed bridge, he was heading there. It seemed like the end of the line but he'd think of something, he'd have to think of something.

The atmosphere within the helicopter was tense. Zeke and Dana hadn't spoken a word to each other since leaving the war zone in NYZ. Maya remained asleep in the back. Dana sympathetically rubbed Zeke's arm but he ignored her, he continued to pilot the chopper with a numb concentration, all the time hoping Cole could make it out of this one.

Zeke dwelled on the memories of the RFI, how Cole was willing to sacrifice himself and the other conduits to save him and the rest of humanity who suffered the plague. Zeke and countless other humans owed Cole their lives, though nothing had changed, everyone knew he was a conduit and they still feared him. Zeke recalled a conversation between he and Cole following the blast, when Cole woke up in hospital, Cole saying something like "_if I'd have died, I'd have been called a hero"_. Cole had 'died' several times before successfully being resuscitated, he'd lost his powers, regained them and then it was Zeke who told him to come to NYZ. Zeke remembered his words as they curdled around in his mind, Zeke convincing Cole to come to NYZ as if Cole needed to prove himself to be a hero again and in this moment he'd realised how wrong he had been.

"Zeke," Dana called again, he hadn't heard her the first time he'd been too wrapped up in his thoughts "I think we're clear you should find somewhere to land."

Zeke simply nodded in response.

Cole approached the edge of the bridge and it was as he had feared. No way across, there was nothing but a large stretch of water. He stood on the edge starring into the deep water below, jumping into it wasn't going to help anything, he may have gained the ability to temporarily suppress his powers but he had never been a strong swimmer even before his powers were activated. It seemed like it was all over, like there was nothing else he could do.

Dana stepped from the helicopter after Zeke had brought it in to land, they were a little disorientated with their surroundings but knew they were miles away from NYZ now. She quickly attended to Maya. Zeke remained seated, facing forward as he had for the entire journey. Maya opened her eyes and looked at Dana.

"You're awake!" she carefully carried her from the helicopter and placed her onto the grass of the field they'd landed in "are you okay, Maya?"

Maya said nothing, she was still and her face was blank. Dana thought she may have been in shock. The girl said nothing but her eyes swung from Dana's and she placed them behind her.

Dana readjusted her view to see what had caught Maya's attention. From out of nowhere swarms of black watch were closing in. Their helicopter must have been monitored along the journey for them to find them.

"Zeke!" Dana called.

Zeke simply stepped out, but said nothing. He scanned the area with his eyes but there was no escaping them. The black watch created a tight circle around them in which it seemed an endless amount continued to join. Several of them had their guns raised, aimed at the three.

Dana raised her arms in surrender "we're not infected!" she called out, but she feared it wouldn't matter, in her experience black watch were ruthless, cold killers.

To their surprise, Blackwatch didn't fire. Instead a man wearing a hazmat suit approached them, escorted by several of the surrounding troops. With no explanation, he held up a device to Dana. It crackled and gave a melodic beep. Dana didn't move and after several moments the man went on to Zeke, the same noises were made. Dana had already guessed that this device was measuring contamination. The man in the hazmat suit was trying to see if any of the three had been infected. He leant down to analyse Maya and Dana held her breath in anticipation. The infection had seemed to have been cured but this device would tell them for sure. The machine made several beeps and the man in the hazmat seemed to take longer in his assessment but after several seconds he raised his thumb and called out "all clear."

"Come with us!" commanded a member of blackwatch.

Cole lingered on what was left on the bridge, with nowhere else to run. The same fear crept up within him of which he'd experienced the moment before charging up the RFI. He allowed himself a sad smile and reassured himself with the thought that he wasn't supposed to have survived the RFI anyway, he'd been living on borrowed time and he'd spent it well, he'd saved humanity again, him, Zeke, Dana and Heller. Cole was going to die but he was taking the last threat to humanity down with him. And whilst he lingered on that thought, he couldn't help but be reminded of Pariah's words. Perhaps if Cole did die, that would be a good thing in the long run for humanity too. The other conduits were dead, or so Cole believed. If he was the last one then humanity could never be threatened by conduits or virus prototypes ever again.

Dana, Zeke and Maya were being marched away, across the small wooded field that they'd found themselves in. A long line of blackwatch troops lead the way and a long line of them followed, the three had no idea where they were being taken. But for now, at least, it seemed their lives were safe. The movement of the march came to an abrupt halt, with the three being stranded in the middle. The troops seemed to be looking up toward a darkening sky, within the far off distance.

"What the hell is that?!" one of the troops uttered.


	19. Chapter 19

In what Cole considered his final moments, his attention was brought above, he glared into the sky with wide eyes " ." he muttered to himself as he witnessed the huge missile closing in from high above. He knew immediately that it was the nuclear bomb. He didn't have time to think only to act. He widened his stance, threw his hands up, dragging huge amounts of static within them. He placed all of his power into his palms and in an enormous demonstration of his power; the nuclear bomb was hurled off course and plummeted into the water.

This of course wouldn't prevent the explosion which impacted seconds later. The initial blast sent Cole hurling into the air.

The line of blackwatch troops stood still to watch as the distance sky became electrified. Here, they were at a safe distance, but even miles away the electrical lightshow was intense, it paled in comparison to the mushroom cloud that had thrown water up into the air. Lightning came crashing down bolt after bolt, concentrated within a single area.

"Zeke?!" Dana called.

"It's the electromagnetic pulse from the nuke," Zeke replied to Dana.

"I don't think it should look like that!"

"It shouldn't" Zeke replied, the sight provided him with some hope until several moments later.

The lightning bolts became less frequent and migrated away, until there was nothing left of them. Everything around them grew dark. The whole area was thrown into a power cut, following the powerful electromagnetic pulse caused by the explosion.

Several days later…

The three had been held in a facility miles away from NYZ, by blackwatch. They weren't sure why they had been kept behind; blackwatch was probably at a loss of what to do with them, they were no longer a threat and were in all intents and purposes, civilians.

The DX-1118 virus was no more. After several troops had entered the NYZ aftermath to establish the situation all they had manage to find was traces of biomass, which had been carefully collected within test tubes and sealed away within top secret locations, they'd also happened across a curious bright vapour emitting from the middle of the city which had dissipated before anything was able to be extracted from it.

Dana entered the three's temporary quarters within the facility, she had been summoned by one of the head scientists and presented with some news.

Zeke awaited her arrival hopefully, they hadn't found Cole yet, perhaps he was out there somewhere.

Dana gave a smile before quickly retracting it, realising it would be insensitive as she informed him "they're letting us go home!"

Neither said a word. Maya hadn't spoken a word since she had woken after the cure and Zeke had said very little.

"I thought you'd be happy," she muttered.

Zeke nodded "that's great," he tried to hide his insincerity with little success.

She approached Zeke and wrapped her arms around him tightly "I'm sorry about Cole,"

Zeke could feel himself getting upset, he quickly lightened his tone and disallowed it "what we waiting for then? Come on let's go."

Several days after leaving the facilty…

The three had decided to travel back to New Marias. Dana had nowhere to go and she had Maya to think about now too. Zeke had offered his place, not believing for one minute Dana would take up the offer. He hadn't wanted to go back to an empty apartment anyway. He jiggled his keys within the lock and opened the door for Dana and Maya.

"Just to warn ya again," he said "the place is a bit of a mess."

Dana lead Maya into the hallway of his apartment "I'm sure it's fine, I'm just grateful you're putting us up, like I said, it's just for a couple of days, until I can sort something out," she walked through into the living room, to find empty beer bottles, magazines, snack wrappers piled atop the coffee table "you weren't kidding ," she muttered.

Zeke quickly scrambled around, picking up the litter to create some space "that sofa pulls out into a bed," he said "best I can do for now." He wasn't willing to give over Cole's room just yet.

Dana nodded. Maya left the pair, going off to explore the other rooms within the apartment.

"I'm worried about Maya," Dana whispered.

"Kid's in shock," Zeke sighed "she just lost her dad, everything she's been through…it's understandable."

"Do you think that's all it is?" Dana asked.

Zeke quickly cleared his throat, to indicate Maya's presence; she was stood within the doorway.

Maya overlooked the two, with blank eyes and continued on into the kitchen.

"So what will you do now?" Dana asked.

Zeke shrugged and gave a strained smile "It's only right I give my buddy a good send-off" he said.

Several hours later…

Zeke had made his way to St Ignatius Cathedral. He had collected a couple of photos and trinkets which he'd placed on the shrine beneath one of the cathedrals stairwells. It was only him, he couldn't help but think that Cole deserved more than this after everything he had done for humanity. Dana had remained behind to look after Maya, who still wasn't speaking. Neither Zeke nor Dana had told her that her Dad had been left behind at NYZ. It hadn't felt right to tell her yet when she was still recovering.

Zeke gave a long drawn out sigh. There was a slight chill in the air but it felt right to say a few words for Cole here. "Cole Macgrath, you were a hero and my best friend," Zeke paused "Won't ever be another one like you. I love you brother and I'm sure gonna miss ya" he took a long gulp of his bottle of beer, another bottle sat atop the shrine he clinked it as if it was Cole's. He placed his fingers underneath his sunglasses and rubbed his eyes to prevent them from growing teary.

He stood in silence for a moment. The pain of losing his best friend and not even being able to say good bye, ate Zeke up inside. He blamed himself, how could he not? He'd give anything to trade places. Zeke remained at the cathedral, alone, for several hours.


	20. Chapter 20

Cole breathed a sigh of relief and of exhaustion. He was here – New Marias. He threw the bicycle down, discarding it in the streets. He'd been travelling for days. It had been his only means of transport and every few pedals had kept generating enough static to administer him niggling shocks along the way.

He found himself in Ville Cochon. It felt good to be back. He took a slow pace enjoying walking the streets of his hometown once again, after he was convinced he'd never see it again. He was passing by the large cathedral, St Ignatius when he stopped. This building always reminded him of the battles he'd faced within the city, of the RFI but right at this moment, although faint, he could have sworn he could hear Zeke's voice. He approached the stairs, slowly creeping up towards him. What an earth was he doing here? Cole thought.

Zeke gathered the photos in his hands, he clinked the beer bottle once more before deciding it was time for him to head home "Half as long…" he muttered and then turned to leave.

"Twice as bright" Cole replied.

The two stood looking at each other for a moment. Zeke imagining he'd gone crazy after a huge smile shot across his face and without hesitation he threw his arm around Cole.

"Good to see you too, Zeke," Cole stretched away and grabbed the bottle of beer "oh man, I am so thirsty!"

"I thought you were dead!"

"I almost was!"

"What the hell happened?" Zeke asked "I mean- the explosion, the lightning, how-?"

Cole took a long swill of beer "Remember that teleport thing Kessler could do?"

Zeke nodded,"You mean?" Zeke paused, still trying to process the concept that Cole was here, "that's awesome, man!"

"I can explain more when we get home" Cole replied "I need to hear about you, Dana and Maya too… right now I'm exhausted!"

"I was going to say- where have you been?" Zeke asked.

The two had already begun walking.

"It's a long story," Cole groaned "right after I got outta NYZ. I couldn't suppress my power anymore" Cole shrugged "… I've had to cycle most of the way, hitching a ride didn't go too well."

Zeke laughed initially before asking him the obvious "ya couldn't just teleport your way here?"

"Genius, why didn't I think of that?" Cole smirked sarcastically "I couldn't figure out how to do that again either."

"Aw man!" Zeke replied as he took another sip of his beer "too bad. Still think ya need to work on getting your ice powers back, this beer's warm… Still can't believe you're here, ya know?"

Cole laughed before turning the conversation to a more serious note "How are Dana and Maya?"

"They're back at the apartment, needed a place to crash," Zeke replied "they're coping… Maya's not said a word though."

Cole nodded.

"What happened to Heller?" Zeke asked.

"He didn't make it," Cole replied with regret "he died taking down Mercer."

Zeke sighed "he was a good man,"

The two arrived back at the apartment to greet Dana and Maya. After a long catch up the three found themselves with mixed emotions about the entire event, they'd been successful but had lost Heller. They had lost a friend and Maya a father. And Dana a brother, even if she did loath him, it was so final now and she still held onto the good memories that they had in earlier life.

The three talked on into the night, cautiously whilst Maya was in the room, planning their next course of action concerning her. Zeke and Dana did most of the talking whilst Cole overlooked. It was just as Zeke warned, Maya sat with lifeless eyes still and quiet. And whenever Cole's eyes met hers he couldn't help but be reminded of Pariah. The same dark dank stare and expressionless face.

It was then that Cole feared the worst. Pariah had told him, in his final moments, about the nature of white light and that those who are too far gone would lose their free will and that Pariah would take over, they would bend to Pariah's will, they would become Pariah. Pariah was dead now, there's no way he could have survived the blast. But if they had been too late what would this mean? Cole quickly shook away this thought - it was impossible, Maya couldn't be Pariah.

"You okay there, brother?" Zeke asked.

"I'm more than okay," Cole smiled "it's so good to be back home."

"No more super heroics for you!" Zeke replied "not for a long time!"

"We'll see," Cole smiled.

END


End file.
